The province of Asia Minor was an area occupied by the Great Qin Empire fifty years ago, and the Great Qin Empire's rule in the area was not very stable, so Liu Xin chose this place as the entry point for attacking the Great Qin. But judging from the current situation, the Great Qin Empire has long been prepared and has already laid heavy troops there.

The Great Qin Empire has always been the top priority of the Foreign Intelligence Service, but after all, they have limited manpower and cannot appear Han faces, so they can only concentrate their main forces around Rome, and the situation in other provinces is not very good.

On the other hand, Caracalla also strengthened the information blockade, and the six corps he sent to Asia Minor were transferred in secret, and the Foreign Intelligence Service did not know their movements in advance. In this sense, Tuoba Jun accidentally stumbled into the territory of Great Qin, and it was not completely useless, at least it exposed the deployment of Great Qin.

Tuoba Jun suffered a crushing defeat in Asia Minor, and the 40,000-strong army finally fled back with only more than 3,000 people, but Liu Xin was not afraid of a head-to-head battle with the Great Qin army, and this battle would come sooner or later. However, Liu Xin did not intend to face the Great Qin army head-on right now, he needed to strike a perfect victory at Caracalla's arrogance. And the most perfect victory was the total annihilation of the 400,000 Great Qin Empire troops concentrated in the provinces of Asia Minor.

Liu Xin immediately issued an order, and the 160,000 infantry of the first and second armies were divided into four formations, and with the cooperation of 20,000 heavy cavalry, they began to advance into the territory of Daqin.

After this mixed infantry and cavalry army entered the province of Asia Minor, it changed its previous style of being noble and fast, and advanced very slowly. The strategy they adopted was to take it step by step and to make steady progress. Whenever a town was conquered, this army of nearly 200,000 men would stop, first build a defensive position, and then begin to hunt down the nobles, officials of all ranks, and soldiers of the Great Qin army who lived in the town and the surrounding villages.

Naturally, these captured people could not escape the fate of being raided and exterminated, and the crime was to massacre innocent Han businessmen. It is only natural that murder pays for life, but only a small number of people really participated in the massacre of Han merchants, and most of them were wronged. Of course, the purpose of the Han army was not to hunt down the real culprit, but to confiscate the family property of these people. The provinces of Asia Minor were not very wealthy in the Great Qin Empire, so the property copied from these people's homes was not worth a few dollars, but food was extremely precious to the Han army, which could greatly relieve the pressure on logistics and transportation, which was Liu Xin's strategy of feeding the war with war.

However, the Han army did not harass the common people of Asia Minor.

In Daqin, the people were divided into three classes, nobles, freemen, and slaves. Later, when Putimius was in power, he relegated the army to a privileged class. Putimius famously said that the soldiers should live a good life and leave no one else alone. It is precisely because of this policy of military first that the army of the Great Qin Empire can be so brave and invincible.

However, doing so also poses a problem. No matter how many privileges the original aristocracy enjoyed, the number of people was limited after all. Now there was a large and privileged military class, and with it the burden on ordinary freemen and slaves.

Now that Caracalla and Geta were in power, the number of troops in the Great Qin Empire had almost doubled, but the burden on the common people had more than doubled. Although the Great Qin Empire was ostensibly peaceful, Liu Xin believed that there must have been many contradictions between the common people and the nobles and the army.

Liu Xin, who came from later generations, knew that the people's hearts were terrible, and he also knew the truth that water can carry a boat and also overturn a boat, so of course he had to make full use of this contradiction in Daqin, and show his attitude through practical actions, only targeting the nobles and the army of Daqin, and not infringing on ordinary people. If the Han army really robbed even the ordinary people of Great Qin, it would inevitably provoke a common resistance of the Great Qin people. In that case, no matter how strong the combat effectiveness of the Han army is, it is impossible to use hundreds of thousands of horses to fight against tens of millions of Great Qin soldiers and civilians.

On the other hand, Liu Xin never considered expanding the territory of the Han Dynasty to the whole of Europe. After all, with different languages, different races, and thousands of mountains and rivers, it is difficult to maintain long-term rule even if this land is taken down. The purpose of Liu Xin's dispatch of troops this time was to avenge the innocent Han merchants, to show the military might of the Han Dynasty, and to weaken the strength of the Great Qin Empire.

According to the analysis of later historians, during this historical period, the Great Han, Great Qin, Parthia and Kushan were called the four great powers. In fact, among these four countries, only Great Qin and Great Han can be called powerful, and the strength of the other two countries is far from them. As long as Liu Xin can defeat and severely damage the main force of Great Qin this time, the Han army will become the most powerful army in the world, and the Han Dynasty will become a well-deserved first power, and the country, including Great Qin, will naturally be in awe of the Great Han and do not need to occupy it for the purpose.

Of course, all this is just Liu Xin's good wishes, and whether it can be realized depends on what kind of results can be achieved in the battle in front of him.

The Han army soon executed the captured Qin nobles, officials, and soldiers, but instead of distributing their property and women to the local people, as in Parthia, they only freed the slaves and divided the land equally.

However, it was such a news that reached the Great Qin army in front of it, and it also caused a lot of shock.

Both Caracalla and Gaita wanted to legitimize the throne of the Great Qin Emperor by defeating the Han army, so they each expanded their armies, so that the army of the Great Qin Empire grew to 1.2 million men in twenty-four legions in a short period of time. The formation of such a huge army was, of course, to prepare for the Eastern Expedition to the Han Dynasty.

Later, both Caracalla and Geta took Koji's advice and adopted a strategy of waiting for work. But such a huge army has been formed, but it is impossible to disband it at will, not to mention that these armies are loyal to Caracalla and Gaita respectively, and no one will take the initiative to weaken their own power.

And in the formation of these legions, a new problem was also presented. In the past, the main legions of the Great Qin Empire were all formed in provinces, and most of the soldiers in the legions came from the same province. However, in the last invasion of Parthia, the Great Qin army was attacked head-on by the Han army, and several legions were tragically destroyed. As a result, in the newly formed legions, geographical boundaries were broken, and the soldiers of the same legion often came from several provinces.

Of the eight legions stationed in Asia Minor, six were subordinate to Caracalla, and two were under the orders of Gaita. Almost all of these eight legions were newly formed, and many of the soldiers had their homes in Asia Minor. In the towns that had just fallen, there were families of these soldiers. From there, news came that their homes had been raided by the Han army, their belongings confiscated, their land divided, adult men beheaded, women and children used as slaves, and they were told that they would be sold to the far east.

Upon learning of this, the soldiers became chaotic and asked their respective commanders for battle. The soldiers whose hometowns were captured by the Han army naturally wanted to save their families, and those whose hometowns had not yet been occupied by the army also wanted to take the initiative to prevent their families from suffering the same fate. In other words, Liu Xin's policy of differential treatment actually caused the soldiers of the Great Qin army to share the same hatred and hatred, and they were united in their desire to drive the Han army out of their territory.

In fact, Liu Xin had already guessed such a result at the beginning, but he had no choice. The Great Qin Empire pursued a policy of military first, and even if he did not take such extreme measures, the troops of the Great Qin Empire would still be highly loyal to their leader.

However, what Liu Xin didn't expect was that the chaos of these soldiers added a lot of pressure to those front-line commanders. Caracalla acted steadily, and his combat policy was to attract the Han army as deep as possible, and then take advantage of the geographical advantage of the local battle to annihilate the invading Han army in one fell swoop. But now it can't be done, as soon as the Han army advances unhurriedly, it only marches more than 30 miles in a day, and nearly 200,000 people are huddled together, making it difficult for the front-line commanders to find opportunities to take advantage of the geographical advantages. Second, the soldiers were angry, and if they did not take the initiative to attack, it would be troublesome if they provoked a mutiny.

Caracalla and Gaita are both distant Roman cities, and it takes at least ten days for news to pass back and forth. If these generals had rushed to attack, they would have been suspected of disobeying Caracalla's orders. But if they continue to stand still and allow the Han army to encroach on their territory little by little, it will be difficult to convince their soldiers that they will still be held accountable in the event of a mutiny.

The generals of the major legions, and even the generals of the two major legions under Gaita, gathered together and discussed all night, and finally decided to take the initiative.

As soon as dawn broke, the two legions of the Great Qin Empire as the vanguard, the Silician Legion and the Egyptian Legion, appeared in front of the Han army's defensive position.

Norik, the former commander of the Silesian Legion, was stabbed to death by Ma Chao a few days ago, and the new commander, Alani, wants to use this battle to make a difference. Although the commander of the Egyptian legion was Claus, who lived in Rome, most of the soldiers came from the three provinces of Arabia, Egypt, and Syria, which were adjacent to the province of Asia Minor, and they were worried that the Han army would continue to advance and invade their homeland. Therefore, both legions were highly motivated and advanced at a fast pace.

When they were still five hundred paces away from the Han army's position, the Silician army and the Egyptian army stopped at the same time, because the Han army's position on the opposite side was not moving, revealing a strangeness, which made Alani and Klaus a little flustered.

Suddenly, there was a muffled sound of "boom" in the distance, accompanied by a sharp whistle, and several boulders flew through the air, one of which smashed directly into the phalanx of Silesia, and the other pieces were scattered around the phalanx.

This is the Han army's trebuchet starting to carry out an experimental attack, and after adjusting the landing point of the stone projectile, more stones will fall. The nightmare that once haunted Caracalla once again tested the nerves of the Great Qin soldiers.