Hasn't the redcoat cannon been pulled up yet? Ran Min asked.

Ran Cao next to him said: "Father, it has rained in the past two days, the roads are muddy, and the baggage troops are really impassable, and the progress is slow. It will take another day for the red-coated artillery to reach the front line! ”

Hearing this, Ran Min sighed and said, "It seems that God wants us to have a hand-to-hand battle with the Persians." ”

As soon as the battle began, the Wei army attacked first.

The Wei army's tactical organization was able to operate as a single human unit - note that they were not closely aligned, and when the Persian soldiers encountered the nearest threat, such as the flank, they could easily and simply face the front in any direction, just by turning around.

Although the Macedonian dense phalanx of the Persians had their unique flexibility and could transform into a variety of formations to suit a variety of terrain and enemy formations, in fact it was a bit cumbersome to achieve this in a dense phalanx, with their spears being very cumbersome to use, not to mention a quick turn.

Compared to the Wei army, this formation, which was very flexible in Alexander's time, was much more sluggish.

It is true that the dense phalanx of the Persian army crushed the left flank of the Wei army at the beginning of the battle with overwhelming force, but the trouble came, the terrain on the battlefield was undulating, and the dense phalanx of the Persians struggled to maintain formation during the pursuit of the left flank of the Wei army.

When the right flank of the Wei army repelled the left flank of the Persians, the victorious right flank of the dense phalanx of the Persians could not turn around, and the Wei army bypassed the front of the dense phalanx, and their advantage in using the ring-headed iron sword and the big shield was immediately manifested!

When there was a gap in the phalanx, the Wei army attacked the phalanx from the flank, and how could the soldiers with spears as long as 21 feet be the opponent of the Wei army with ring-headed iron swords and large shields?

At this time, it was an inch short and an inch dangerous, and the Persians huddled together couldn't even wield their spears, not to mention that except for the first row, the Persian soldiers in the back row did not have heavy armor and shields.

That is to say, the shortcomings of the dense phalanx of the Persians are also obvious, such a dense phalanx has to rely on cavalry and other arms to protect its wings, but the cavalry is stronger than defensive, once defeated, the flanks or back of the dense phalanx are vulnerable to enemy attacks, then this rigid formation may collapse and out of control.

Moreover, the phalanx lacked coordination, which made it difficult to use for encirclement operations, and could only be used in conjunction with cavalry.

Alexander didn't use this kind of phalanx at that time, his cavalry was the real main force in a sense, and it was strong enough.

Ditches, woods, ridges, rivers and other obstacles often make dense phalanxes be divided or block the advance of the formation, once the formation is destroyed for this reason, then the resulting gaps are easily used by the enemy's melee forces, and the results can be imagined.

Seeing that one of his infantry phalanx was quickly routed, Shapur II became angry and directly ordered his army to rush forward.

"Shoot the arrows!"

It's good that the Persians didn't take the initiative to attack, but this initiative to attack immediately suffered a lot!

The Wei army's arrow array, which had long been ready to attack, was not polite at all, with strong bows and crossbows, looking at the Persians who were impacting over with a burst of ten thousand arrows.

"Whoosh! ...... "The rain of arrows in the sky was like locusts passing through the country, and in an instant the powerful penetrating power pierced the armor worn by the Persians, causing them to fall to the ground with a wail, and countless dead and wounded.

"Chariot Charge!"

The chariots in the front row of the Wei army, with Ran Min's orders, after several rounds of arrow rain were launched, they also swarmed over, quickly crushed over like armored vehicles, and strangled one enemy after another nearby.

And the Persians were suffering from the fact that their spears were too long, and they could not use them for a while.

Seeing that his own casualties were so heavy, Shapur II calmed down after his rage, and had to give the order to retreat.

In view of the fact that the heavy cavalry of the Persians was too strong, and the casualties of the Wei army were not small, they retreated after a few miles of pursuit.

The Persian army began to retreat to the city of Nishapur and put up a stubborn resistance.

This time, Shapur II learned wisely, and did not fight the Wei army head-on, but held on to the city of Nishapur. The Wei army had thousands of red-coated cannons, but every time the cannon fire destroyed the walls of Nishapur, and when they first attacked it, they would be beaten out by the Persians, and then the walls were repaired again.

After this back and forth, the Wei army could not capture the city of Nishapur for a while.

Wei Army, the Great Tent of the Chinese Army.

Lu Gan stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, all the shells of our red-coated cannon have been exhausted. The Persians were so tenacious, they were outnumbered, and they held on to the city of Nishapur, and whenever our artillery made a gap in the wall, they could always stop it in time, and then use everything available in the city to repair the wall and restore it to its original state. ”

"We've suffered a lot of casualties."

Wei Liao also said: "Yes." Your Majesty, the Persians' individual combat ability is not inferior to our Wei army, and they resist stubbornly, although we have artillery, trebuchets, bed crossbows and other more advanced weapons, and the equipment is better than that of the Persians, but in the long run, I am afraid that it will be my Wei army that will not be able to hold on first! ”

Hearing this, Ran Min's brows furrowed: "I know all these situations. Now that the Persians are huddled in the city of Nishapur with heavy troops, and they can't hold out, we can't help the Persians. But I believe that if the Persians hold on like this, they will be the first to hold on! Don't forget, Nishapur is a large city with a large population, but the Persians have hundreds of thousands of troops stationed there, and I don't believe the Persians will hold out for much longer without any foreign help! ”

"Your Majesty, but we're running out of grain." Lu Gan sighed and said: "The daily consumption of 300,000 troops is really too much, this battle has been fought for half a month, we have been unable to attack the city of Nishapur for a long time, consumables such as cannonballs and crossbow arrows must be transported from the country to Nishapur, but the road is far away, thousands of miles away, I don't know how long it will take, how much manpower, material and financial resources will be consumed!" ”

"Consumables like cannonballs, crossbow arrows, etc., are put aside." Ran Min said in a deep voice: "Now, the war has gradually fallen into a tug-of-war. Shapur II obviously wants to fight a war of attrition with us, and wants to drag our army down in the city of Nishapur! Now that we are withdrawing our troops, we have wasted all our previous efforts, and all the efforts we have made before will be in vain. ”

"What is Your Majesty going to do?"

"I want to requisition a large amount of grain, cattle and sheep from the neighboring provinces of Kushan, Western Satrap, and the Protectorate of the Western Regions. Didn't the Persians want to fight a war of attrition with us? Then we'll kill him! ”

Hearing this, Xun Ji couldn't help frowning and said, "Your Majesty, the minister thinks this is a little inappropriate. The Protectorate of the Western Regions is good to say that it has been under the rule of the empire for many years, and the people's hearts have long been attached, but the Kushan Province and the Western Satrap Province have just been incorporated into the territory of the empire, and the ruler is a puppet king supported by us. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." Sima Xu also said: "If you don't take it first, you will collect the grain and straw before you have exerted favors on the people of Kushan Province and West Satrap Province, lest the people of the people be in turmoil." ”

But Ran Min didn't seem to care, and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, do you know why I set up the three provinces of Kushan, Western Satrap, and Vagatha, instead of setting up the Protectorate in these places? There is a fundamental difference between the prefecture and the province. The capital will become a part of the empire in the future, and the empire will try to assimilate the local aliens, but the province is different, the province is equivalent to the area conquered by the empire, just a colony! ”

"What is colonization?"

"Colonization means to reproduce and reproduce. The colonization of the empire was to support puppet kings, emigrate to the conquered areas, and plunder the interests of the original local people. So if the province is chaotic or not, I don't care at all! ”

In fact, Ran Min is still a subtle statement.

The main manifestations of colonialism were overseas migration, pirate robbery, slave trade, export of capital, dumping of goods, plundering of raw materials, etc. In other words, the Great Wei Empire will carry out a policy of oppression, domination, enslavement and exploitation of the conquered countries and regions!