Chapter 3638
Advantage of Offense
...
"Fire!" As soon as his archers stepped off the slope, Kusroy gave the order to fire.
Even a glance at the Han army could easily influence one's morale and military bearing. In such a situation, launching a direct attack and focusing the soldiers' attention on the attack would largely negate the impact on morale.
When people are busy, they can ignore many things, and that is the gift that Kusroy prepared for the new recruits.
If we keep these new recruits busy and active, and then let them attack to vent their inner emotions, the situation will be much better.
Based on this, Kusroy's orders, while not the optimal solution in many cases, were able to minimize the impact of the war on his recruits.
A large number of new recruits, once they can form a certain scale of combat power, can unleash a comprehensive combat force that is no less than that of a few elite units.
Therefore, whether an order is issued correctly depends entirely on the situation on the battlefield.
A commander should make appropriate plans and arrangements based on his own strengths and capabilities, and make full use of his abilities.
Sun Guan, serving as the vanguard, did not take the Kushan's long-range archery attack seriously.
Since leading the Shield Guard Legion, thanks to their thick armor and tower shields, few ranged attacks have been able to penetrate their defenses.
Within the entire Southern Brahmanical system, only the Peacock Legion possesses such a ranged strike capability.
However, there was only one Peacock Legion, and it wasn't here right now, so Sun Guan wasn't afraid.
Even if the peacock were really here, Sun Guan would not feel any fear or apprehension.
Strategic legions that can only fire a few shots in a battle would be extremely profitable if they directly attacked frontline heavy infantry on the battlefield, using their heavy armor defenses to deplete the enemy's strategic strike capabilities.
Having nothing to lose either way, Sun Guan, without any fear, led the entire Shield Guard Legion to the front.
While defending forward with his shield raised, Sun Guan also glanced at the terrain and quickly assessed the situation.
As a battlefield capable of accommodating hundreds of thousands of troops from both sides, the battlefield area is quite large, but its flatness is rather poor.
The Han army was generally at a disadvantage, being located at a lower elevation. In this situation, if they wanted to launch an attack, they would have to attack from a lower elevation. In contrast, the Song army would attack from a higher elevation, whether it was to launch an attack or to defend.
Such a simple difference in elevation can give the two sides different long-range strike ranges.
The Han Empire's army, which originally had an advantage in the quality of its bows and arrows and the quality of its soldiers, had its advantage in attack range negated by the addition and subtraction of terrain elevation.
Moreover, judging from the location of the Kushan army's long-range strike force, it was clearly situated on a high point on a sloping battlefield.
Just by looking at this inclined plane, Sun Guan already had several solutions in mind, and even methods that could utilize this inclined plane.
"This situation is a bit troublesome!" Using his shield to block the arrows, Sun Guan watched as the Kushan ranged troops retreated a few steps after launching a counterattack, quickly crossing the ridge slope to avoid the Han Empire's arrows coming from the front.
After reviewing this long-range strike capability utilizing special terrain, and its ability to defend against attacks from a distance, Sun Guan instantly understood its significance and also realized how troublesome such a tactic was. Under these circumstances, the Han Empire's long-range strike forces were left with only two options if they wanted to inflict effective damage on the Kushan army.
One approach was to pursue greater speed, making the arrows fly faster, so fast that the Kushan army wouldn't even have time to retreat a few steps.
One approach is to pursue a wider strike area, using high-angle projectiles to directly strike troops behind the ridgeline.
After briefly considering the two methods in his mind, Sun Guan quickly put them out of his mind.
Because these two methods are only theoretically feasible; in reality, given the existing conditions, they are simply not feasible.
On the battlefield, Sun Guan knew he didn't have the ability to directly change a soldier's talent, or even the talent of a ranged archer, and he also knew Zhang Fei didn't have the ability to do so.
Throughout the entire Han Empire, there were probably very few people with this ability.
Another approach is to pursue a wider strike range, which can be achieved by improving logistical and military supply capabilities to a certain extent, thereby alleviating the pressure in this area and increasing the frequency of attacks.
However, Sun Guan had no idea whether this attack method would be effective against enemies behind the slope.
Having never experienced historical warfare, they naturally lack relevant experience. Even though they have learned a lot of knowledge that only legion commanders should have, the gap is still quite large when it comes to practice.
By moving his troops back and forth along the ridgeline, Kusroy's army was rapidly depleting the Han Empire's reserves of long-range arrows.
Once arrows are used up, replenishing them is not something that can be done in a short time.
If they could deplete the Han Empire's long-range strike capabilities, then Kusroy would have a clearer understanding of how to address the stability of the subsequent war.
Perhaps due to the specific nature of his class, Kusroy was able to see that within the framework of the Brahmanical system, this imperfect caste system ultimately harbored enormous hidden dangers.
Because many professions are professionalized, whether it's large-scale expansion or maintaining logistics, they are all subject to the constraints of the caste system.
The Han Empire, without this burden, would theoretically have more abundant resources, and the pressure and burden of mobilizing them would be much less than that of other empires.
It can be said that the Han Empire theoretically held an advantage in logistics, especially in the logistics of military equipment.
The reason it is described as theoretical is that the vast logistical supply of the Han Empire always contained some strange and unusual items.
While those things improved the Han Empire's army's adaptability and response capabilities on the battlefield, they ultimately did not enhance the Han Empire's army's extreme combat power in certain aspects.
Therefore, in Kusroy's view, the Han Empire would inevitably be the first to succumb to this kind of sustained long-range attrition warfare.
They had prepared a large number of arrows in advance and chose sloping terrain, which could significantly reduce casualties during long-range attacks and standoffs. (End of Chapter)