Happy New Year to book friends!

......

The Sassanid Dynasty had a huge territory and a large population, in order to facilitate management and completely dominate this territory, Gao Shun announced, kill! Kill until they surrender.

Li Qiang, together with Fang Liang, Zhou Fei and Cao Shan, led 30,000 high-ranking cavalry and 30,000 high-ranking infantry to attack the Sassanid Empire from the east.

The senior infantry also rode forward.

Since the space of their space ring had been expanded to 2,000 cubic meters, enough to hold military rations, weapons, arrows and other materials, the troops were light and simple, and marched quickly.

The Kushan Empire saw that the Han people had sent troops, in order to befriend the Han people, and in order to pick up cheap, they also sent troops to attack the Lite and Huazimo, these two small kingdoms, originally vassals of the Kushan Empire, have now become vassals of the Sassanid Empire, and the goal of the Kushan Empire is to completely eliminate these two countries and enhance their own strength; They estimated that the Sassanid Empire would not be able to come to the rescue of the two vassals after being attacked by the Han Chinese, and this was a good opportunity for them, and they had already considered this step when they submitted to the Han Chinese.

They had long been frightened by the Sassanid Empire, and although they were mainly strong Han Chinese officers and soldiers, they did not dare to follow the battle, let alone use the courage to attack the territory of the Sassanid Empire.

Li Qiang took the northern route, attacked all the way to Nisa, and then went south, advancing westward from the coast of the Persian Gulf.

Ma Gui, together with Zhao Xiong, Sun Cheng and Gao Wei, led a huge fleet to the Sassanid capital of Ctesiphon; The location is near what is later Baghdad.

Ma Gui and the others led 3,600 officers and soldiers in the camp, 20,000 high-level infantry, 3,000 strong crossbowmen and 3,000 bed crossbowmen, and only 3,000 high-level cavalry, so there was a certain element of adventure.

At this time, Gao Shun and the others learned from the Kushan Empire that the strength of the Sassanid Empire's army was by no means as vulnerable as they imagined, but far beyond their imagination.

The Sassanid Empire has some not-so-reliable superweapons, the War Elephant, but heavy cavalry is still the centerpiece. The Sassanid Empire, like the Parthian kingdoms of the past, had a combination of heavy ironclad cavalry and light archers, but the proportion of heavy cavalry and melee cavalry was much larger.

The Sassanid freedmen "Azatan" formed a large number of low-ranking nobles who owned their own small estates and were the main source of Sassanid heavy cavalry, especially the "Aswaran" heavy cavalry.

The light and medium cavalry of the Sassanid army was served by the allied armies, such as the Khada, Kushan, and Khazars. The Arabs in the northern Sassanid Empire also tended to provide medium cavalry to fight for. This was different from the situation in which the large nobles of the Parthian kingdom served as heavy cavalry, and the minor nobles provided light archers.

Moreover, the heavy cavalry of the Sassanid Empire paid more attention to "dualization", that is, it had a strong impact and was also equipped with a bow and arrow to shoot.

In addition to the heavy cavalry, which consisted of the lord of the manor, "Azata", the Sassanid emperor had in his hands the guards under his direct command. One of them, known as the "Immortals" or "Immortal Army", was named the most famous infantry guard of the ancient Persian Empire, and also claimed to have 10,000 men. Armed with heavy scale or chain mail and steel and gleaming girdles, these elite cavalrymen displayed the power of the king. From the establishment of the empire in the 3rd century AD to the fall of the empire in the 7th century AD, many important battlefields had the figure of "immortals".

The equipment of the Sassanid heavy cavalry was determined by their status and wealth, so there were also heavy cavalry that did not wear horse armor, or horse armor used lighter leather or felt, while higher nobles or royal guards were more heavily equipped. Wrapped in heavy armor, they can ignore the arrows fired by man. When charging, they also used the same as the Parthian heavy cavalry, using large two-handed shock spears. There is not much difference between them in these respects. Until the introduction of stirrups at the end of the Sassanid Empire, their heavy cavalry was rarely equipped with shields. They also used swords and maces as melee weapons for their main cavalry.

The Sassanid Empire also had a number of heavy infantry, such as the well-paid Drami hoplites, who wore heavy armor and used swords and javelins. Of course, there was still a big gap between them and the Roman hoplites.

The Sassanid Empire, with its great military might, was known as the "King of Kings".

In view of such a strong military strength of the Sassanid Dynasty, Gao Shun's purpose in using troops was for Ma Gui to attack the core territory of the Sassanid Dynasty and contain the main force of the Sassanid Dynasty, while Li Qiang was killing and plundering outside, which could not only make a fortune, but also hit the morale of the Sassanid Dynasty, and also reduce the war potential of the Sassanid Dynasty.

Li Qiang's army launched an attack, and with its strong military strength, the vassal states were powerless to stop it, and the battle report flew to the capital city of Taisiphon.

The huge fleet led by Gao Wei and Ma Gui reached the western shore of the Persian Gulf and landed in the northwest to prepare for a surprise attack on the city of Susa. Gao Wei led the troops back to Xiliang Kingdom, preparing to transport another batch of officers and soldiers and supplies.

Susa is an ancient and prosperous city, with signs of human settlement in 7000 BC and probably founded in 4000 BC. The post road runs west from Mesopotamia to the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, and this largest arterial route in the empire is called the "Imperial Road". Susa was one of the two capitals along with Ctesiphon, whose rulers used to make Ctesiphon their summer capital and Susa the winter palace.

Susa City is more than 400 miles away from the landing site of Ma Gui and others, but Susa is nearly 1,000 miles away from Cessy Seal.

After Ma Gui and others landed, they were divided into two, and Zhao Xiong and Sun Cheng led the senior cavalry, 3,600 officers and soldiers of the trapped camp and 5,000 senior infantry, and marched rapidly to raid the city of Susa.

And Ma Gui led the army behind, all the way to implement the three-light policy, all the old and weak were killed, the young and strong were enslaved, and the women were used as the maids or concubines of the officers and soldiers in the future, and all the property was confiscated.

The city of Susa was defenseless and was struck down, and all the officials and civilians in the city were captured, and their belongings became the spoils of war for Ma Gui and others.

Subsequently, Zhao Xiong and Sun Cheng took turns leading the cavalry and infantry out of the city to plunder; Gao Shun was ready to regard this place as the kingdom of Sun Cheng's second son, and Sun Cheng worked even harder.

The news was quickly reported to the Sassanid king Ardashir I of the city of Ctesi, and the ensuing news shocked him even more, the Han people called, not only the city of Susa was conquered by the Han people, and the surrounding area was plundered, but the eastern vassal states and administrative regions of the kingdom were also frantically plundered, and countless people were killed and countless wealth was lost.

According to the available information, he guessed that it might be the Han reinforcements invited by the Kushan Empire, but he estimated that the Han people were very far away from here, and there would definitely not be too many officers and soldiers coming, otherwise, they would not have adopted such a crazy mode of plunder, but adopted the mode of conquest.

As a result, King Ardashir I issued an order to transfer troops from all over the country to prepare to annihilate these foreign raiders.

When the nobles heard the news, they were also afraid of being plundered by the Han Chinese, and actively participated in the war for their own interests.

When he learned the news, Ma Gui, Qin Guan and others also arrived in Susa City with rich booty, and the places they passed were in ruins, leaving no chickens and dogs.

Now they are well supplied and ready to use it as a base to hold the city of Susa and contain the main force of the Sassanid Empire.