Chapter 116: War Is Not Only Fought with Swords 1
Chapter 116: War Is Not Only Fought with Swords 1
The Parthian archers did not blindly attack as Surenas had ordered them to.
They did not have enough numbers to face the Roman army head-on.
They kept their distance, ready to retreat at any moment, and tried to gauge the Roman army’s response.
What Surenas wanted to know was the information about the archers that Rome had newly trained.
He needed to know how good their bows were, how skilled they were at riding horses, and how to plan his strategy accordingly.
But Marcus did not act as Surenas intended.
He blocked the path of the cavalry with heavily armed infantry.
“What are they thinking? What are they trying to do?”
The best way to deal with archers was either to charge with heavily armed cavalry or to restrain them from a long distance with superior throwing weapons.
Parthia did not expect Rome to have bows with longer range than theirs.
As the Parthian archers closed the distance to see the Roman army’s reaction, they were caught off guard by arrows that flew much farther than they expected.
Swoosh!
Thud!
“Aaah!”
“What, what is this? Their arrows can reach us from here?”
The cavalrymen at the front fell lifelessly, staining the sand of the desert with red blood.
The actual combat range of the archers was more than twice as short as that of the regular archers.
It required more strength and precise skills to draw a bow while riding a horse than on flat ground.
If the enemy had excellent archers, the power of the cavalry would be halved in an instant.
To overcome this disadvantage, Parthia used not only archers but also a large number of heavily armed cavalry.
But this was only a reconnaissance mission, so the heavily armed cavalry did not come along.
The Parthian cavalry commander was quick to decide.
He was sure that staying here would only accumulate losses.
It was enough to find out that the Roman army had powerful bows.
He turned his horse’s head without hesitation.
Surenas showed a reaction as if he knew it would happen when he received the report from the returning commander.
“Of course they wouldn’t go around the north if they were confident.”
There was no way they would enter an area where the cavalry could shoot without any preparation.
If Rome had increased their archers and acquired bows with excellent range, they would have enough confidence.
Of course, it was not something that Surenas could not handle.
It might be quite tricky to attack with only archers, but he could break through by using heavily armed cavalry to avoid the barrage of arrows.
But that made him feel more uneasy than he could express in words.
In Surenas’ eyes, the Roman army’s movement seemed to shout ‘This is why we are confident’.
He understood why the Roman army had advanced, and at the same time, he thought that it was worth risking a battle from Parthia’s perspective.
In fact, his subordinates also thought that the Roman army was not easy, but not an unbeatable opponent.
They said that they could win easily if they used their cavalry power to the fullest in an open terrain, and urged him to start a battle.
‘Something is wrong with the flow.’
Surenas considered the possibility that the Roman army deliberately showed them only as much information as they could handle.
“I don’t like that we haven’t seen their cavalry with our own eyes. We need to gather more information before we fight.”
As a genius commander, his intuition was sharp. He almost accurately saw through Marcus’ trick.
If he had started a battle after one reconnaissance mission, thinking that he had figured out all of the Roman army’s strength, he would not have been able to avoid a defeat.
Surenas tried hard to get information about the enemy by sending small groups of cavalry near the Roman army’s camp.
But the Roman army hid their strength thoroughly, even at the cost of slowing down their marching speed.
They only attacked a few times with small groups of light cavalry to block the escape route of the Parthian archers.
As this situation continued, discontent began to leak out from within the Parthian army.
Some nobles openly complained that they were sitting idly by and losing their cities without doing anything. How long did they have to wait? The morale of the soldiers was falling.
On the other hand, the Roman army marched steadily towards the major cities without wavering.
The Parthian army was born as a coalition of nobles, so it was not easy to suppress once discontent arose.
“General, we are losing our cities without doing anything. How long do we have to wait? The morale of the soldiers is falling.”
“The enemy’s morale must be falling too. If we keep restraining them, their marching speed will inevitably slow down. They must be hiding something. It’s too risky to fight without confirming it. We can’t gamble with the fate of the nation, can we?”
Surenas wanted to fight as well.
He honestly felt the urge to just seize a good terrain and start a battle several times.
Maybe it was just a delusion that the Roman army was hiding something.
But he had an uneasy feeling that he would lose if he fought now, and it did not leave his mind.
Surenas trusted his instinct.
The disadvantage was on the side of the Roman army that had invaded.
Even if they lost the major cities, they could harass the enemy’s supply units from behind and restrain them endlessly.
Then, even if they were the Roman army, they would not be able to continue their expedition.
It would be a great loss for Parthia, but it was the only way to bring the enemy to the negotiating table.
Marcus also knew Surenas’ strategy well.
The legionnaires expressed their concern about the noticeably slow marching speed.
“The enemy is not coming out to the battlefield at all. It’s too much. Did we make a mistake by exposing our archers?”
“If he had not shown anything at all, he would have been more cautious and reluctant to fight. But since he had shown this much, I thought he would be willing to challenge me. The enemy commander has better instincts than I expected.”
Antonius finished his calculations in his head as he looked at the map with a serious expression.
“For now, if we capture the bases near the Euphrates River, we will have no problem with water supply. We also have enough food thanks to our excessive preparations. It would have been a disaster if we had trusted Armenia. They did not provide any food at all, making ridiculous excuses.”
“We just need to follow our plan and attack the main bases of the nobles while avoiding the areas that are difficult to supply. And then we have to make Armenia pay for their wrong choice later.”
“But if we slow down our march like this, we won’t be able to devastate the territories of the local nobles as we planned. Then we will only achieve a partial conquest of Mesopotamia, and we won’t accomplish our expedition goal, will we?”
“No, you don’t have to worry about that. The urgent ones are not us, but them. Their army is not like ours, composed of legionaries recruited by the central government. They are just a bunch of mercenaries gathered by the local nobles from their own domains. They care more about their own lands than the country’s security. That’s what they are.”
Marcus had a clear insight into the current situation of the Parthian army.
The Parthian army was a kind of feudal army that served the country to protect their own interests.
Even if Surena devised a strategy to minimize the damage to Parthia, it would not be accepted if it required the sacrifice of the nobles.
Parthia was not a centralized nation of natives.
How effective would guerrilla tactics be if the nobles did not cooperate?
Marcus thought that he just had to continue destroying the domains of the Parthian nobles along the waterway of the Euphrates River.
Of course, he did not intend to just wait for the enemy’s discontent to explode.
He had prepared for this situation by making connections with the Parthian nobles through Tadius.
Of course, he did not ask them to betray Orodes and join Rome.
If Parthia was almost irrecoverable, maybe, but there was no reason for the Parthian nobles to betray Orodes and side with Rome at this point.
Instead, Marcus had spread plausible rumors in advance by using merchants before invading Parthia.
The rumors were that Surena had made a secret deal with Rome and was aiming for the throne of Shahanshah.
‘Rome is not invading now to make Sanatruces the Shahanshah of Parthia. Think about it, no matter how strong Rome is, it would suffer serious damage if it fought a full-scale war with Parthia.
Even if Rome is powerful, would they do such a foolish thing as to set up a pro-Roman king? It would be impossible for the king to rule as he pleased without regard for the nobles’ opinions. Rome’s real purpose is Mesopotamia plain. Surena will turn a blind eye to this.’
The rumor was strangely specific and spread at a frightening speed, becoming a topic of conversation among people.
But Surena, who was the subject of the rumor, did not know that such a rumor was spreading in the capital because he had left his seat to wage war.
The nobles watched Surena’s actions with suspicious eyes.
Soon after, they heard that he was not fighting against the Roman army at all and exploded with rage.
It was too coincidental for this to be a simple coincidence.
Surena’s actions matched perfectly with the rumors that had been spread beforehand.
driving away the Armenian army.
“What the hell is this? Surena has made a secret pact with Rome?”
The king’s stormy rage made his servants bow their heads low.
“Your Majesty, that is just a rumor. It is an unconfirmed nonsense.”
“Ha, how can you say that when the accuracy of this unconfirmed nonsense is astonishing? I don’t know where this rumor came from, but didn’t you say it started spreading around the time Surena and I left for war? Then is the one who spread this rumor a prophet or something?”
The servants could not argue back and sweated coldly.
No one believed that Surena had betrayed them, but they could not deny the fact that his actions were strange.
Orodes immediately summoned the high nobles and held a meeting.
The king’s closest confidant Mutares, and Mithran and Karen, who happened to be in the capital, attended.
It was an open secret that Orodes did not like Surena.
They cautiously watched the king’s mood, feeling that something was coming.
Karen, a great noble of Hyrcania, was the first to express his opinion.
“It is true that there are some aspects of Surena’s actions that I do not understand. But if he really had a rebellious intention, he would not have to do this now. He would have shown his ambition earlier.”
Orodes’ face twisted at the unexpected defense of Surena.
Mutares, who had risen to a high position with his ability to read the king’s mind, decided that it was time to step in.
He stepped forward and began to condemn Surena with a sharp voice.
“I have a different opinion. Why didn’t Surena show his ambition until now? Because it is most effective to do this by using Rome’s hand.
Rome is now ignoring Ctesiphon and only destroying the nearby domains of the nobles. This is a scheme to make the nobles distrust the Shahanshah and weaken the power of the nobles who would interfere with Surena’s rule. Remember that Sakastan, which is ruled by Surena’s clan, has no geographical conflict with Rome.”
Orodes’ expression darkened at Mutares’ words.
“How is the public opinion of the local nobles? Not good, I suppose?”
“Yes. They are anxious about what to do if the Roman army turns its direction towards them. And they are watching the situation with suspicion and anger, wondering why the Shahanshah’s army is not fighting against Rome.”
“Did you hear anything from Surena?”
“There was a letter from him. But it was so absurd that…”
Mutares quickly unfolded a piece of paper and handed it to Orodes.
Orodes snorted as he read the contents of the letter.
“What? He says he doesn’t understand Rome’s intention yet and expects them to have a powerful trick up their sleeve, so he avoids confrontation? He says that dragging out the war and ending it with negotiations is the only way to minimize Parthia’s loss? Has he lost his mind?”
He was so angry that he crumpled up the paper in his hand and threw it on the floor.
He glared at Karen, who had been arguing for caution.
“Do you still want to take Surena’s side?”
“It’s not very convincing, I admit. But Surena’s military talent is recognized by everyone here. I think we should at least hear his reason for making such a decision.”
“Hmph! We should hear him out. I really want to hear his ridiculous excuse for avoiding combat like this.”
Mithran, who had been neutral, also sighed and nodded.
“I also feel that Surena’s letter lacks persuasiveness. How can Surena, the military genius, retreat without even fighting? I can’t picture that.”
“But Surena is now the commander-in-chief of our army. If we recall him, won’t there be a gap in command?”
“It doesn’t matter anyway. He’s not fighting at all. Does it matter who takes his place? He’s just following Rome around without doing any real combat.”
“But still…”
“I’ve been in politics for about 30 years. I’ve never felt such betrayal before. Surena is a traitor! He will never fight against Rome until the end. Trusting him is a way to fall into the abyss of ruin together. I’m sure of it.”
Moved by Mutares’ earnest appeal, Mithran and Orodes also agreed.
As the atmosphere went this way, Karen could no longer stand up for Surena.
When the agreement of the great nobles was reached, Orodes called his servant and gave him an order as if he had been waiting for it.
“Send a letter to Surena right away. Tell him to choose one of the two: either fight a decisive battle with Rome and drive them away, or return the command and come back to the capital.”
“As Your Majesty wishes.”
The order with the seals of Orodes and the great nobles was delivered to Surena in the shortest time.
Surena was shocked as he read the contents of the order.
“I’ve been working so hard to minimize the damage until now… If I start a confrontation now, all the operations I’ve done so far will be useless! Did Shahanshah really give this order? No, before that, did the other nobles agree to this?”
Despite Surena’s lament, the messenger had nothing to say but yes.
After being silent for a while, Surena clenched his fist so hard that blood came out and barely opened his mouth.
“Let’s go back to Ctesiphon as soon as possible. I have to see Shahanshah in person and explain.”