God Three Group Chat: Three Kingdoms

...

For Liu Tong at this moment, the world today is no different from a world war.

The Eurasian region, which occupies the main area of ​​human habitation and has 90% of the population, has been involved in wars to varying degrees.

Not only the Han Empire, but also the Kushan Empire, Parthia, and Rome were deeply involved in the war during this period.

It can be said that during this period, war was the main theme of these empires, and how to obtain the due gains and benefits in this environment and make the country better was what she, as the helmsman, needed to do.

Even if you don't participate fully in formulating future strategies, you should at least have a general understanding and a general plan.

Only by doing so can we better cope with the future situation, especially given the growing decline of the Parthian Empire.

Despite the assistance of Han troops such as Sima Yi and Liu Tong's strategic advice and influence, the Roman Empire's all-out offensive could not change the balance of power on the battlefield, only slightly slowing down the pace of the Roman advance.

Liu Tong himself is very satisfied with this result.

Maintaining a fragile balance—both allowing the Parthian Empire to halt the Roman Empire's advance and preventing it from truly gaining the strength to resist the Roman Empire—by continuously and slowly bleeding the other side dry was quite a challenge.

It requires not only a thorough understanding and assessment of both empires, but also a wealth of comprehensive information and intelligence, and the ability to effectively deploy resources based on this information.

"Judging from the current situation in Central Asia, the attack on Ctesiphon, the capital of Parthia, should be able to be delayed until after the new year..." Standing beside the sand table of the world's major terrains set up in the palace, Liu Tong calculated the area where Parthia was located and its terrain, analyzing how long the enemy could hold out.

"With such favorable terrain, can it only hold out for such a short time?" Looking at the terrain laid out on the sand table and the continuous mountain range, Si Niang asked thoughtfully, "Judging from the area conquered by Rome, the entire lost territory of Parthia is only about 20% of the total land area. Surely it can't hold out for such a short time?"

Although it's unclear how His Highness knew the terrain information of that area, since he was able to create it, the information must be reliable.

Assuming there are no issues with the terrain information, and given the towering mountains and continuous mountain ranges that offer a significant defensive advantage, just how vast must the power disparity between the two countries have to be for things to have reached this point?

“Parthia is indeed vast and has a very good terrain, but most of the area is not suitable for large-scale populations. In the southern part of Parthia, there are many mountains and hills on the plateau, and the Caspian Sea and the Elburz Mountains to the north, making it extremely well-defended. Unfortunately, this is the only area that is truly excellent.” Liu Tong shook his head slightly, describing the situation in a calm tone.

Despite its seemingly vast size, the Parthian Empire actually had a relatively small area suitable for human habitation.

Within the empire lie the Kavir Salt Desert and the Karakum Desert, and the eastern and southeastern parts of the empire are also largely arid, semi-desert, semi-plain regions.

The most central region of the entire empire was the area along the Tigris River.

Even Ctesiphon, the Parthian capital, was itself a city located near the Tigris River.

In other words, the Tigris River is a very important and deadly river within the entire Parthian Empire, because the area surrounding this river is the very heart of Parthia.

Apart from the areas along the riverbanks, only the Hecania region in the southeast of the Caspian Sea is relatively good, nourished by snowmelt from the high mountains, which supports a large population.

However, aside from these few select regions, the areas possessing genuine strategic value and capable of long-term rule were pitifully small. Even without considering dependent territories, the size of the Roman and Parthian empires wasn't significantly different.

However, the two countries have extremely significant differences in population, arable land for food production, and access to food.

It is precisely because of these disparities and impacts that the country lost 20% of its territory in Parthia, and its actual national strength has been severely damaged. To say that it lost more than half of its territory would be an understatement.

Without the lands of the Tigris River basin, the only region in Parthia that could potentially rise again was Hecania.

However, compared to the former, the population that the Hecania region could support was simply insufficient to maintain the size of an empire.

Therefore, the actual task of restoring the area that Parthia retains today has little to do with the military anymore.

A powerful army can reclaim lost territory and grow stronger on new land.

However, for Parthia at this time, such a thing was simply impossible, and even impossible to accomplish.

Although Parthia at this time had a fairly large army with considerable fighting strength, and even a handful of elite troops, it was at a complete disadvantage in terms of military strength compared to the much more powerful Roman Empire.

The Roman Empire, with its larger size and more formidable national resources, possessed a far greater war-making foundation than Parthia.

The only disadvantage of the Roman Empire was its increasingly long land-based food supply lines.

Unfortunately, due to insufficient military strength, even knowing the Romans' grain transport routes, they were unable to stop the Romans from delivering grain.

Even with such a long distance, and half of the food being consumed on the way, the Roman Empire remained unconcerned.

After years of accumulation and training, Severus, who was trying to defeat the Parthian Empire in one battle, hoped to use this opportunity to solve the problem of high military expenditures, while also significantly improving the treatment of soldiers and enhancing their combat effectiveness.

Therefore, under the current circumstances, taking control of the Roman Empire and forcing it to retreat is actually a more feasible option.

However, this choice no longer has much to do with Liu Tong, and she wouldn't make such a choice.

The directions and choices we are considering and thinking about now are more for the post-war period.

How can grain cultivation be accomplished in a plateau environment with numerous hills and complex terrain?

How to effectively and cyclically develop and utilize grassland areas, how to control the scale of snowmelt, and how to utilize them sustainably, etc.

These grassroots operations that truly make a country stronger are what Liu Tong considers in his spare time. (End of Chapter)