God Three Group Chat: Three Kingdoms

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Apart from the two major rivers, the terrain is flat and open. How could such a terrain not have any defensive vulnerabilities?

Let alone this kind of terrain, even the Great Wall of the Han Empire in the north, built among towering mountains and ridges, with not only garrison personnel but also beacon towers to transmit information, could not stop all the northern barbarians from moving south, let alone two mere rivers.
Although both rivers are major rivers, compared to the Yangtze River's flow and the Yellow River's dangers, they are considered very safe.

While it's not quite like the Mediterranean where you could swim in a bathtub, you could definitely make a raft out of some wood and cross the river.

With such a long battle line and such a large force, whether it's a feint or a deception, transporting the main force across the river wouldn't be difficult.

That's why Sima Yi felt a headache coming on, but he had no choice but to deal with the current situation.

I had anticipated wars before, but never to this extent. Even in imperial-level wars, it's rare to see them escalate to this level.

The attacking force is estimated to have more than a million troops, which would have been unimaginable in the past.

This thing, which can be said to transcend common sense, brings shock and surprise that also surpasses normal calculation and cognition.

“But with just our armies against Parthia, unless we fight it out, we will inevitably be dragged into the quagmire of all-out war. Judging from the current situation, the Roman Empire may be able to hold out for longer than Parthia can bear.” Xu Shu was thinking from a realistic perspective, speculating on the outcome based on existing actions, but the outcome was not very good.

An individual may be blinded by anger, but a collective is much less likely to be, especially for an empire. Even if the actual leader is furious, those below will still provide a reasonable solution when it comes to implementation.

Unrealistic behavior is impossible unless everyone is selling out the country.

The Roman Empire, at present, does not appear to be crumbling or declining; on the contrary, it exudes a vibrant and increasingly powerful aura.

From the perspective of national momentum, the Roman Empire would naturally not risk everything in a single gamble, attempting to decide the outcome in a chaotic battle.

"To achieve victory in one battle?" Upon hearing this method, Sima Yi frowned and his expression turned somewhat grim, but then he sighed.

In a sense, maintaining the current situation of total war is not as good as concentrating all our strength to gamble on one game.

The former is a slow death, while the latter at least has a glimmer of hope for victory. However, Sima Yi really didn't want to gamble on such a gamble with a clearly low chance of winning.

Moreover, the one who possessed the gambling funds was Vologius V, not Sima Yi.

From this perspective, he simply doesn't have the absolute right to go all in, and that right is impossible to give him.

If such a right truly existed, then the Parthian Empire would now belong to the Sima family.

In any case, Sima Yi genuinely didn't mind this. As long as Volognes V dared to give it to him, he was truly willing to go against his conscience and collect everything, then further organize and reorganize it. "If all else fails, we can block the river and concentrate the main force of the army in Mesopotamia," Xu Shu, who also understood the reality, then offered a second solution.

"Block the rivers and then concentrate the army in Mesopotamia?" Following this line of thought, Sima Yi pondered for a moment, then added, "Attack the enemy through the rivers? That's a good method, but if we build a large number of rafts during the battle, others might guess this and follow suit, building a large number of rafts as well. In that case, it would just be a change of environment. I don't know if the Roman Empire was good at naval warfare, but the Parthian Empire was not, and the northern soldiers in the camps are not good at naval warfare either. We can't rely entirely on the Jiangdong army, can we?"

"Then we won't build rafts!" Based on the same answer, Xu Shu offered a solution: "Completely block the river, turning it into a flat plain, where we can fight directly on the riverbed!"

"?" Sima Yi looked at Xu Shu, puzzled, and then slowly said, "Yuanzhi, have you been reading the wrong book lately? You didn't read that book called 'A Lose-Lose Situation Is Better Than a Win-Lose Situation'?"

"How did Zhongda know?" Xu Shu, who was informed of his recent situation, looked at Sima Yi with some surprise.

“This approach is really unnecessary; we don’t need to go to this extent yet…” Sima Yi’s face darkened completely, and he quickly waved his hand, rejecting the suggestion.

By blocking both rivers, then leading the army to fight the enemy in the middle of the two rivers, creating a stalemate, and then releasing floodwaters from both sides simultaneously, both sides can be wiped out.

If this were done just once, regardless of the Roman Empire's initial reaction, it would likely calm down considerably and begin to seriously consider the consequences of the subsequent war.

As for whether the success rate of doing this will be low, in fact, it will not only not be low, but will be very high.

To a normal person, setting up such a situation is clearly aimed at mutual destruction, but who would want to die together?
I can understand it personally, but can an army of thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of people really achieve this unity of purpose?

If everyone could do that, then the meaning of mutual destruction would be lost, and you could win in a head-on fight, since this is a world where willpower can distort reality.

At most, this tactic is just a form of insurance, an emergency retreat insurance in case things get out of hand. It's unlikely they really intend to go down with the enemy.

The method proposed by Xu Shu was not a safe option, but rather an attempt to perish together from the outset, and it was even highly likely that he would risk the annihilation of his own forces to severely damage a portion of the enemy's army.

From a tactical perspective, this approach is undoubtedly foolish, because the side that loses a large number of troops will inevitably also lose a large number of combat power and mobile forces. At that time, if they want to resist again, they will probably be willing but unable to.

However, from a strategic perspective, this approach allows both empires to remain calm and move directly from their peak to decline.

It could be said that this was not a good thing for either the Roman Empire or the Parthian Empire. The problem was that Xu Shu was a member of the Han Empire. Wasn't it just asking for trouble to worry about the decline of these two empires?

"I'm not joking about this. The Roman Empire's system has huge hidden dangers, as you, Zhongda, can probably see. If we could wipe out most of the Roman Empire's citizen legions in one go, or even just half, with a little instigation, we could plunge the Roman Empire into endless internal strife. As for wiping out half, under this decision-making method, it's not that difficult..." Recalling the feasibility of this method, Xu Shu still explained it.

(End of this chapter)