Mythical Three Kingdoms

The five legion leaders reluctantly regained some morale under Benito’s strong command. After all, when you’re unsure of what to do, being directed by someone else is also a correct approach. Besides, Benito is undeniably an excellent general.

"Audran, lead your legion to destroy all the pontoon bridges further upstream and downstream of the Tigris River and confiscate all the ferries. What we need to do now is to buy time," Benito ordered coldly.

For Benito now, since the Thirteen Roses Legion is already gone, without any remarkable achievements, he would inevitably face judgment from the council.

If so, he might as well take a gamble. Perhaps he could win. If he lost, losing Mesopotamia and Assyria to the Parthians would be the result.

For Benito now, it didn’t matter anymore. Whether these territories were taken or remained in hand, the outcome was the same for him. The demise of the Thirteen Roses left them unable to argue.

Thus, taking a chance might have some effect. In any case, from Benito’s perspective regarding the Parthians’ momentum, if he couldn’t come up with a plan, these places in Mesopotamia would inevitably be taken.

[If the Thirteen Roses were still around, I would definitely want to have a go against the Parthians to hold our momentum. Unfortunately, the power of our army is clearly at a disadvantage now, and the Parthians have already deployed elite troops capable of countering the Thirteen Roses. This is a very troublesome issue.] Benito ordered while contemplating.

Originally, when Gilea was to handle the Parthians east of the Two Rivers, Benito had already prepared. Thus, after suffering defeat and retreating, he quickly cut off the pontoon bridges and confiscated the ferries, though he hadn’t expected the defeat to be so disastrous at the time.

Nor had he expected the Parthians to win so effortlessly, to the point where they might have more time to scavenge further upstream and downstream. Benito had no choice but to divert some of his already limited troops to burn the pontoon bridge crossings and ferries upstream and downstream.

"Carlo, have your legion conduct reconnaissance. Notify me immediately if the Parthian army on the other side makes any movements. The rest of you, rebuild the defense line with me." Benito ordered another legion leader, having already devised a plan.

"Yes!" Carlo nodded and said.

"Elklan, do you still have the courage to fight?" Benito asked his somewhat dejected subordinates.

"Fearless Roman citizens never lose courage," Elklan roared.

"In that case, we’ve lost the Thirteen Roses, but the tactics Caesar left us remain our valuable weapons. Are you willing to be led by me to battle against the Parthians?" Benito asked solemnly, "Victory shall be ours!"

It must be said that Benito’s experience and ability far surpassed Gilea’s by several leagues. Under his reorganization, although the Roman army hadn’t entirely shaken off the shadow of the Thirteen Roses’ demise, they began to gradually restore their morale.

Moreover, with Benito’s constant command and mobilization, the Roman army had no spare time to ponder the impact of this event.

"We must orchestrate a major victory. Although the army’s morale has gradually recovered, this alone is not enough. Yet the Mesopotamian Plain is vast, with nowhere to ambush. Moreover, we need to hold out here for about a month. What should we do?" While others settled down with Benito’s mobilization, all the burdens fell on Benito’s shoulders.

As Benito contemplated, a frightening thought gradually emerged in his mind. Given the situation, what was there to cherish?

Similarly, the Parthians found it quite sickening. Benito, that madman, burned all the pontoon bridges and crossings hundreds of miles upstream and downstream of the Tigris River. Even if there were ferries occasionally, there would only be a few, far from enough for the Parthian army to cross the river.

What disgusted the Parthians the most was that if they dispatched more than five hundred troops, the Romans would immediately send a hundred men along the river, separated by the Tigris River. Although the distance was quite large, they could still see each other.

"In five days, we only acquired less than fifty small boats?" General of Fars Sassanid twitched his mouth after listening. Though he knew they had to cross the river early on, he hadn’t expected Benito to scour hundreds of miles upstream and downstream, clearly prepared in advance.

"General of Fars, didn’t we prepare warships?" Zhuge Liang asked, somewhat puzzled; how could they cross the river without preparing some boats?

"We haven’t used ships for hundreds of years in Parthia," Fars replied, somewhat helplessly. During the last Persian Empire, their maritime prowess was quite impressive, easily reaching the Aegean Sea. Now, after hundreds of years without ships.

"The Tigris River isn’t wide. Why don’t we build a pontoon bridge ourselves?" Zhuge Liang suggested, and Fars helplessly nodded, having no other options.

"But continuously building the pontoon bridge under Roman surveillance, they can destroy it at any moment. Constructing it this way could easily lead to problems," General of Fars Sassanid replied, somewhat reluctant to perform a futile task.

Zhuge Liang slightly furrowed his brow; within those words, he heard something else, such as the other party seemingly wanting to hold their ground here.

"May I ask the General, if His Majesty were to attack Lower Armenia, how long would it really take?" Zhuge Liang thought for a moment before speaking.

The Sassanid of Fars looked at Zhuge Liang with a touch of appreciation, "From north to south, you can directly cross the Two Rivers."

"I see, the General doesn’t mind the other party stalling for time. More precisely, while the enemy is delaying, the General is also delaying, planning to annihilate the remaining two legions together?" Zhuge Liang instantly understood the Sassanid of Fars’s plan.

"Why not try when there’s such an opportunity?" The Sassanid of Fars laughed and said.

Zhuge Liang was speechless and thoughtless. The Sassanid of Fars possibly noticed Zhuge Liang’s doubts and said, "Is the General worried that spending too much time will change the battle situation?"

"Yes, the Romans certainly have their own calculations. I fear delays might cause changes," Zhuge Liang didn’t hold back at all. Precisely because the Parthians highly respect them, Zhuge Liang didn’t bother to cover up in this aspect. Repay kindness with kindness; this is the principle of the Han Dynasty.

The Sassanid of Fars thought for a while, smiling and preparing to explain to Zhuge Liang. But Zhuge Liang seemed to have understood from his expression and demeanor, "You plan to finish the task in one battle, taking advantage of the current overwhelming advantage to force the Romans to deploy troops, then attack from both flanks with His Majesty?"

The Sassanid of Fars looked at Zhuge Liang in disbelief; he could guarantee that he hadn’t told anyone about this plan, it was only known to him and Vologases V. Unexpectedly, Zhuge Liang had broken it down in one swift move.

"Although this isn’t impossible, if we completely annihilate almost the entire Roman Eastern army here, capturing the Roman Eastern Province next will become very easy, and the success rate of attacking from both flanks is high." Zhuge Liang muttered to himself while lightly rapping on the table.

"But there’s a significant drawback." Sima Yi, who had been quietly looking at the map, smirked disdainfully and spoke.

"Let’s hear it." The Sassanid of Fars didn’t mind Sima Yi speaking out.

Recently, the Sassanid of Fars understood the identities of these people, all are nobles, great nobles. However, compared to the Great Parthian Nobles who often hold them back, these great nobles are very capable and nearly relentless in maintaining the Han Dynasty.

As a result, the Sassanid of Fars decided that when he sees Vologases V again, he will propose that Vologases V find ways to learn from the Han Dynasty system on managing nobles, because regardless of whether the Sassanid of Fars likes the Seven Great Parthian Nobles or not, he must acknowledge the tremendous strength of the Seven Great Parthian Nobles.

If he could bind these nobles into one string like the Han Dynasty did, the scenario in which Persia stormed to the Aegean Sea and occupied half of the Mediterranean Sea back then; Parthia could achieve such feats, right?

Currently, Parthia has 120,000 troops deployed, nearly exhausting all their strength, but if it could transform the Seven Great Nobles like the Han Dynasty, the forces that Parthia could send would at least double!

After all, every great noble aligning with the Imperial Family means it can reduce the energy spent, and aside from recovering the power to restrain nobles, it can also gain their support. Quite frankly, if the internal situation is united as one, with Parthia’s ambition and aggression, military forces would easily triple.

"There’s a section where the Euphrates River and the Tigris River are particularly close, which happens to be where the Romans are stationed in Akkad. If I were Benito, henghengheng!" Sima Yi’s sinister snicker sent shivers down the Sassanid of Fars’s spine.

Although this smile struck fear into the Sassanid of Fars, he still didn’t grasp the meaning, precisely speaking, in Parthia, they never considered such things.

Seeing the Sassanid of Fars still confused, Zhuge Liang chuckled bitterly twice and explained, "What Zhongda means is since death is inevitable, and loss of the Mesopotamia is certain, why not dig between the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, with the mere hundred-mile gap, the water could rise five or six zhang, does it matter if they are elite or not, they’d all perish."

A million tons of flowing water crashing down, unless you’re Dian Wei, anyone else would undoubtedly die, especially wedged between the two rivers with nowhere to run. Imagine if the Yangtze River and the Yellow River were a hundred miles apart and opened up in the middle, how would you feel?

The Sassanid of Fars immediately felt his hair stand on end, thinking how many people would suffice for filling this gap, right?

"He probably wouldn’t do that... would he?" the Sassanid of Fars tentatively murmured reflexively.

Hearing the words of the Sassanid of Fars, Sima Yi sneered and turned his head to one side, seemingly too lazy to deal with him. Placing hope on the enemy’s stupidity implies failure already, and placing life on the enemy’s stupidity, heh, only death awaits!