Chapter 3609
The End of the War
...
Upon realizing the unexpected number of casualties, Perennis became even more satisfied with Marche, the commander of the Thunderbolt Legion.
As expected of a legion commander who earns everyone's praise, he truly possesses exceptional battlefield insight and judgment.
When it's time to be ruthless, we will not hesitate; when it's time to protect ourselves, we also have the strength.
"Marce's strength and ability to respond are indeed excellent. I just wonder if he has any plans to lead other legions." Following Peronis's gaze, Severus also saw Marche, his words filled with praise and satisfaction.
Perennis understood the meaning behind Severus's words and then nodded slightly.
On the battlefield, there are legions that perform exceptionally well, and there are also legion commanders who perform poorly. Some are even unable to carry their own eagle flag.
Rather than letting such a legion embarrass itself, why not find an excellent legion to try and save it? What if it can be saved?
Perennis withdrew his gaze and then thought of the other legions.
The Thirteen Rose Legions were completely wiped out, and even the will of the Eagle Banner was shattered. Rebuilding them would be extremely difficult, and in terms of organization, they were essentially wiped out.
However, the Thirteen Roses Legion is of extraordinary significance, at least for the Claudi family, it is of a completely different meaning.
However, whether the Claudie family is willing to pay the price for rebuilding for this so-called significance remains to be seen.
Leaving aside the politics behind the legion, Perennis looked at the Fourteenth Legion, whose losses were not too severe.
Although the combined legion suffered heavy losses in the initial battles with the Han Empire's army, after subsequent replenishment of soldiers and thanks to their innate abilities, the combined legion, which was basically uncounterable, had an astonishingly high survival rate.
Even on today's battlefields, casualties remain pitifully low.
However, the most satisfying aspect of the Fourteenth Legion is not its relatively low number of casualties, but its almost infinitely variable talent.
The existence of such talent can limit many excellent legions, especially those that have already demonstrated their abilities on the battlefield and have been tested in actual combat.
However, even if we wanted to train a similar legion, it would probably take a long time to make that a possibility.
Currently, within the Roman Empire, even if suitable veterans and reserves are available to replenish the ranks, priority will be given to replenishing the legions that have suffered heavy losses, rather than retraining new legions.
As the Roman army's spiritual force, the Imperial Guard suffered more than half its casualties, an unprecedented level of heavy losses.
The other auxiliary military spirit legion, the council guard, suffered pitifully few casualties, with total casualties less than 10%. Relying on the power of their vast military spirits, they were able to replenish their forces within a few days after the war ended.
As Emperor Severus's personal guard, they had no identity restrictions when fighting in the north and south. Many of them were guards who came from barbarian tribes. Of the three legions, they could barely muster two legions at present.
The absence of the fifteen founding legions and sixteen steadfast legions on this battlefield resulted in extremely heavy losses.
However, thanks to the long-term management of the eastern Roman region by Duke Ganassis, the size and combat effectiveness of the army were restored in a very short time. The troops were then reorganized under Ganassis's combat system to contain and suppress the Parthian elite forces in other directions.
This only includes the Roman legions of the Eagle Legion and the elite legions, and does not include the Roman barbarian troops who suffered even greater losses.
It can be said that in this full-scale imperial war, Rome's elite troops and the barbarian forces suffered more than 300,000 casualties. And this was only achieved with the full support of Rome, from the Senate to ordinary soldiers, in order to defeat their greatest adversary, Parthia.
If things had continued as before, with the eastern Roman dukes simply leading a small force to plunder, Parthia might have been completely different.
On the other side, they were making their final moves, attempting to suppress and cut off the retreat of the Parthian army of the Farssasan.
They also quickly received intelligence information from the core battlefield and gained a better understanding of the current level of their opponents.
Although the Ardashir Legion had expended considerable energy and suffered significant losses in combat effectiveness, its remaining influence was still evident.
With only the Duke's Guard, two Eagle Cavalry Legions, and four or five elite barbarian units, it wouldn't be impossible to forcefully eliminate the enemy.
Even if he could kill his opponent, Ganassis would not hesitate for a moment.
But seeing the cavalry unit appearing from the northwest, and glancing at the Ardashir legion and the Parthian cavalry behind it, Ganassis realized that blocking them was basically impossible.
In terms of elite status, the two cavalry legions that appeared from the northwest were in no way inferior to his Duke's Guard, both in terms of momentum and combat power.
With the Ardashir Legion, which is capable of breaking limits, it's really hard to say who is stronger between the two sides.
The most troublesome and important point is that Ganassis's elite troops are all infantry, and the only cavalry force he has is from the barbarians.
Their numbers might be passable, but in terms of combat effectiveness, they were far inferior to the Parthian cavalry.
Forcing such a cavalry unit to engage the Parthian cavalry, even at the cost of desperately trying to buy time, would likely not achieve the desired effect.
"That's enough!" Looking at the Parthian cavalry that ignored him completely, Ganassis sighed heavily and gave up the idea of continuing the pursuit.
Using infantry to pursue cavalry, especially high-speed cavalry, shows that Ganassis wasn't that incompetent.
Without Volognes V to completely capture Ctesiphon, how long could these few elite Parthian troops that escaped the encirclement hold out?
Knowing that Rome would plunder the core Parthian region to the point of exhaustion, Ganassis understood that it would be impossible to maintain a large-scale cavalry force in the core Parthian region in the future.
Without the food to support a large cavalry force, how long could these Parthian cavalrymen who escaped survive?
As for abandoning cavalry and turning into infantry, that would be even better.
Gathering the scattered Parthian light cavalry, whose whereabouts were unknown, was indeed a challenge for Rome.
It's not that we can't win, it's just that it's very difficult to catch up.
But dealing with Parthia's infantry would be a piece of cake for Rome.
Once we find them, we can crush them. (End of Chapter)