Chapter 3630
Steady and Confident
...
When both sides can cut off each other's logistics, the lack of logistical pressure on their own side provides an advantage that is enough to give them the initiative on the battlefield. At least, without the influence of impatience, they will have the initiative.
The question is, do they have time requirements?
Yes, but their time requirement is to drag it out for a longer period, at least until early April, when the hot season has just begun.
The Han army, on the other hand, had to either completely clear out the south before this time point or avoid the continuously rising temperatures after this time point.
"In your opinion, what is this Han general's fighting style like?" After learning about the recent situation, Gars, who was under less pressure, asked calmly, "His current abilities and the arrangements he has made for the battle situation should give you a clue."
Kusroy shook his head slightly and said cautiously, "The other party is indeed very troublesome. He is definitely not an ordinary legion commander. He is mature, steady, experienced, and calculating, and even possesses extremely strong self-confidence..."
For a typical commander, if he is inclined to be cautious, he would naturally take Rajagaha first, then Gaya, proceeding step by step and gradually eroding the city.
A commander with a more aggressive fighting style would not have adopted this conservative approach of building earthen walls to capture Gaya.
Judging from this general's combat methods and choices, he seemed neither prudent nor radical. However, upon closer examination, Kusroy felt that the general must have had absolute confidence.
The seemingly conservative approach to attacking Gaya was actually a strategy of besieging Gaya and attacking its reinforcements. Once the Kushan reinforcements were eliminated, both Gaya and Rajgir would be easily captured.
The fact that they held this idea of besieging a point to attack reinforcements is enough to demonstrate their confidence.
This is also the reason, upon closer examination, why Kusroy did not lead reinforcements to confront the enemy head-on.
Since the goal is simply to buy time, there's no need for a direct confrontation; we can just turn around and head straight for Rajagaha.
This kind of behavior should have been very demoralizing, since it would have hurt the soldiers' morale if their teammates didn't go to the rescue.
However, to my surprise, my reply yielded an unexpected reward: the garrison commander of Gaya surrendered, thus eliminating any potential threat to me.
Now, everyone is on the same level.
"Is he so confident in himself? Could he be another top-tier commander of a large army?" The thought of this possibility made Gars feel his calmed heart twitch again.
Under normal circumstances, he would never have such thoughts.
Unfortunately, after fighting the Han Empire for so long, and encountering more than just one or two Han Empire commanders, they received similar feedback from both the north and the south.
This means that the Han Empire deployed high-quality commanders for both the army and the navy, which means that the Han army had an extremely large reserve of commanders.
In this situation, it's not unreasonable to encounter any kind of commander.
"I can't guarantee it, but it's always good to be cautious." Kusroy glanced back to the west, his brow furrowing slightly.
A commander who is this confident is a troublesome figure from any perspective.
"This is troublesome, what do we do now with Rajagaha?" Recalling his experiences along the way, Zhang Fei scratched his head, feeling somewhat bewildered. He had led his entire army to Rajagaha with a local guide, only to be tricked by the guide and ended up in Gaya.
At first, they didn't recognize the characters in this place, but they set up camp and prepared to attack the city. After all, they had already reached the city, hadn't they?
After all the preparations were completed, it turned out to be Gaya.
However, since we had already made the necessary preparations, it wasn't easy to change positions. So, we decided to just play and see what happened first.
If the Kushan army dared to leave the city and fight in the open, the situation would be slightly simpler for Zhang Fei. With this in mind, Zhang Fei went straight for it.
The final result was that the garrison commander of Gaya surrendered directly, and Gaya was captured.
After taking it, Zhang Fei finally had the time and attention to figure out how to deal with Wangshe City.
“The roads of both sides converge here. Whether it is the enemy or our army, if they want to resupply, they will inevitably pass through this area…” Sun Guan glanced at Zhang Fei, pointed to the area on the map, highlighted it, and then placed his hand on it.
“Our army does have high requirements for logistical supplies, but in my memory, the Kushan army didn’t have any requirements for its own logistics…” Zhang Fei recalled the Kushan logistics in his memory and said thoughtfully, “Even an ordinary ship could carry a huge number of soldiers.”
Normally a ship can only carry ten people, but the Kushan army often carries twenty or even thirty.
When Zhang Fei first encountered this level of mounting capability, he said he had truly broadened his horizons.
It was precisely because he had witnessed the Kushans' absurd logistical capabilities that Zhang Fei had little doubt about the Kushan army's logistical supplies.
On the one hand, this area is relatively close to the core area of the Kushan Empire; on the other hand, the Kushan Empire has a really strong carrying capacity; and the Kushan Empire is indeed surprising in its unscrupulous behavior.
"This means that we must rely on pure hard power to solve the problem with the other side, a siege war..." After realizing this, Sun Guan also felt the difficulty involved.
For the Han army today, regardless of which unit, they do not like to fight siege battles when choosing the type of combat.
This applies to cities that are easy to defend but difficult to attack, or cities that are easy to attack but difficult to defend.
Even heavily armored infantry are not particularly effective in siege warfare.
In normal skirmishes or open field battles, heavy infantry with heavy armor defenses demonstrate far greater combat and interception capabilities than they do in siege warfare.
Therefore, under normal circumstances, the Han army's preferred combat methods were always encounter battles and field battles.
However, nowadays they need to expand their territory, and siege warfare is an unavoidable type of battle, which is also the type of war they need to find a way to resolve.
"The only saving grace is that the height and defensive capabilities of Rajagriha City aren't exactly outstanding," Sun Guan said with a slightly optimistic tone, looking at the estimated height and thickness of the walls in the intelligence report. (End of Chapter)