Chapter 6743 Design

Chapter 6743 Design
At the same time, Ardashir was running at full speed towards the Helmand River ferry. As for the intelligence detected by the scouts that Ardashir was running towards the previous high mountain camp, it was more of a tactical deception. After all, it was raining so heavily that neither side could see, and they could only rely on other means of reconnaissance.

Ardashir may not have as many scouts as the Han Dynasty, but as a native of the Parthian Empire, Ardashir at least knew what types of reconnaissance capabilities could be used in such heavy rain, and he also knew more or less what the upper limits and shortcomings of these reconnaissance capabilities were.

After all, war is sometimes simply a competition of intelligence acquisition capabilities. There is no hope for Ardashir to acquire intelligence at the moment, but Ardashir can still release some false intelligence to deceive the Han Dynasty's reconnaissance capabilities.

It is obvious that the effect of this false intelligence is not very good. Although it did shock the Han Dynasty when it was first collected, after analysis by Cao Ren and others, it was quickly proved that it is unlikely that Ardashir went to the mountain camp.

After all, going to the high mountain camp is literally a gamble of life, a fight to the death for both sides, and Ardashir is not at that level yet. To put it bluntly, with the little capital that Ardashir has, fighting with Cao Cao, even if Cao Cao will suffer heavy losses, he will definitely be the winner in the end.

"Go to the Helmand River ferry at full speed." Ardashir stood at the side of the road and led the Holy Death Cavalry to conduct reconnaissance while urging his elite legions to attack with all their might. He also knew that his previous intelligence fraud could not hide the Han Dynasty for too long, but at least it could delay some time. If this little time could allow them to reach the Helmand River ferry first, then it would be hard to say who would win.

"Yes!" Fares answered loudly, and his soldiers also marched forward in the rain with determined expressions, without being shaken at all by the rain. However, the rainstorm did slow down Ardashir's marching speed to a great extent, and the cold rain continued to take away the heat of his soldiers, making it difficult for many soldiers to maintain their state even if they had firm beliefs.

"Gurgan, you lead the Scimitar Commandos to the Herman River ferry first, deploy defenses there, and be prepared to receive us." Ardashir ordered Gurgan who led the Scimitar Commandos. He now fully understood the situation.

"Yes." Young Gurgan answered loudly.

"Be careful. If the Han army has arrived by the time you get to the Helmand River crossing, then retreat and wait for our army. If the Han army has not arrived, you can deploy defenses there. The Han army may arrive a little earlier than our main force. This mission is very dangerous, but Gurgan, you need to hold on for a while. I will definitely lead the main force to arrive." Ardashir grabbed Gurgan who was about to leave and said loudly, "Be careful!"

Gurgan nodded upon hearing this, then saluted with a determined look and quickly led his team away. Due to the current rainfall, the main force under Ardashir, except for a small number of Holy Death Knights, the rest were infantry, and among these infantry, the fastest running were the Scimitar Assaulters.

Well, if we really want to say who is the fastest runner, it is actually the Kshatriya warrior corps led by Sakara. After all, the special effect brought by the talent of divine feet allows Sakara's headquarters to walk anywhere with ease. But this corps was used by Ardashir to release false information, so now Gurgan can only go to the Helmand River ferry first.

When Vasudeva I was integrating the north and south of the Kushan Empire, he seemed to have forgotten about Ghazni and Saqqara. Although to be honest, the two were also excellent generals who had participated in the war between the Han Dynasty and the Kushan Empire since the very beginning, and they are still alive today.

But after Vasudeva I arranged these two people, he never mentioned them again. From a certain point of view, in addition to the fact that these two people's legions can perform better in the northern Guishan area, there may be some intention to suppress the Brahmins. After all, these two are Brahmins.

"Tavasdes, can we really arrive before the main force of the Han army reaches the Helmand River ferry?" After seeing off Gurgan, Ardashir asked with some solemnity.

Although Ardashir had sounded extremely confident before, he actually had doubts about whether he could reach the Helmand River on time. Moreover, as the executor of the plan, the Han army should not run slower than Ardashir at such an important juncture.

"Yes." Tavasdes said firmly, "The problems within the Han Dynasty are bigger than I thought. Otherwise, the enemy would have arrived earlier than us anyway. However, due to internal conflicts, the Han army needed to focus part of its energy on calming the internal situation, which led to some problems. Although we are now a little further away from the Helmand River crossing than the Han Dynasty, it is not much further."

"But such a forced march..." Ardashir looked at the soldiers marching in the rain, and they were somewhat unable to keep up physically.

"At least our soldiers, under your command, did not complain even in such a heavy rain, but continued to march. This is our chance. The report from Sakara has already explained a lot. The Han army is resting, which is our chance." Tavasdes said excitedly, "We will definitely arrive at the same time as the Han army, and then we can pretend to be an ambush."

"Are the problems within the Han army so serious?" Although Ardashir had received a lot of insider intelligence and knew what Cao Cao had done and the turmoil within Cao Cao's forces, he had never imagined that the conflicts within Cao Cao's forces had reached such an exaggerated level.

"It seems that it is not just the middle and upper classes who are dissatisfied with the monarch, the middle and lower classes are the same. Judging from our current situation, even if the Han army marches all the way, it is impossible to reach the limit and be forced to stop to rest. It can only be said that the commander-in-chief was forced to compromise." Tavasdes said with a glimmer of joy in his eyes. The intelligence obtained about Cao Cao's internal situation and the situation seen on the real battlefield were completely different things.

"With such people's hearts, even though the Han army is strong, it is just a pile of loose sand." Tavasdes said confidently, "Who knows, we can directly exploit the flaws and force the Han army to collapse directly, and achieve greater results than now."

"I think it's hard to say. You were there when Yan Xing was there before, and you saw it too. Even though the Han army is not in good shape, we are not much better." Ardashir said with a sigh.

"It's different. When Yan Xing was in power, it was a single legion, at least everyone was united. But now there are multiple legions working together. In war, more people does not necessarily mean more strength. When orders are difficult to execute and people's hearts are not united, more troops will only lead to more loopholes." Tavasdes said with a smile, "I looked for loopholes in the Han Dynasty before, but I couldn't find any that could be exploited. I didn't expect that there was a problem with the people's hearts in the Han Dynasty."

"That will be difficult to fight. The individual qualities of the Han soldiers are there, and the grassroots backbones are excellent. Even if they are dissatisfied with the command of the upper echelons, they can still exert considerable combat effectiveness. They can't be defeated just by force." Ardashir sighed. He had obtained a lot of Han Dynasty armor, and even the armor of the Tiger Guards. Just having that kind of armor in front of him could give him a great sense of security.

"At least it's not the situation we had before where we had an advantage but couldn't turn it into victory." Tavasdes looked at Ardashir and said with a smile, "If I had known that the weakness of the Han Dynasty was in this area, I shouldn't have invested the power of fate weaving towards the Kushans, but towards the Han Dynasty, so that the contradictions between the middle and lower classes and the upper classes would gradually intensify and finally explode."

"What a forced march! It's raining so hard and the road is so muddy." Ardashir sighed. Even if his main force could arrive on time, their combat effectiveness would be reduced by one third. Fortunately, the Han Dynasty would lose the same amount as them.

But when he thought that the armored legions of the Han Dynasty would not lose their defense even after such a journey, Ardashir's face looked somewhat ugly.

At the same time, the Han army, which had spent a lot of time resting, finally started again at the urging of Cao Ren. Although the soldiers under his command had some complaints about this, their years of upbringing were there, so they cursed a few words and then set off.

However, the marching speed was obviously slower than it should be. Cao Ren wanted to continue the forced march, but even with the forced march, the speed of his soldiers did not increase much.

"All units should maintain their condition and be prepared to attack and defend at any time." Ma Pin ordered the brothers around him. It was better to walk slowly, which effectively maintained their own combat effectiveness. The only disadvantage was that in the rain, if you walked slowly, you would be exposed to the rain for a longer time, which would take away more heat and make you somewhat stiff.

"Zixiao, at this speed, even if we rush over, we may not have enough time to deploy defenses at the ferry. We may not have the chance to build a complete defense line before Ardashir leads his troops over." Xiahou Yuan kept patrolling from front to back to make sure no one was left behind and that some teams were moving too slowly. After two trips back and forth, Xiahou Yuan spoke to Cao Ren with some concern.

"But at least our physical strength has been preserved well." Cao Ren said helplessly. This was not his problem, but the army itself was collectively resisting in this regard. The marching speed could not be increased at all. What could he do? He had no way to do anything.

"What I mean is, why don't we send one of our troops to go there first?" Xiahou Yuan looked at Cao Ren and suggested, "If we keep dragging it out like this, I'm afraid something might happen."

"Bakza is nearby the Helmand River. If a single legion goes there, not only will it be unable to deploy defenses, but it will also fall into another kind of embarrassment." Cao Ren shook his head and said. He was also an experienced and prudent veteran. Although he wanted to force a march to solve the problem, after realizing that he couldn't do so, he gave up his previous idea and instead steadily advanced and maintained his status. In this way, even if he didn't build a defensive line, he would still have a considerable advantage by waiting for the enemy to tire themselves out.

Xiahou Yuan was silent for a while after hearing this. He was somewhat worried, but what Cao Ren said was indeed correct. At worst, the current marching speed could maintain their peak physical strength and they would be able to go into the battlefield at any time without any major problems.

In this way, one side tried its best to force march and reach the Helmand River ferry as quickly as possible, while the other side tried to maintain its physical strength as much as possible and rushed to the Helmand River ferry at a leisurely pace. As time passed, when the main force of Cao arrived at the Helmand River ferry, Ardashir was less than 30 miles away from the ferry.

"Reconnaissance shows that so many places are home to Ardashir?" Before charging into the Helmand River ferry, Cao Ren reviewed his own intelligence for the last time and discovered that according to the information provided by the main reconnaissance personnel, there were traces of Ardashir's troops in many places.

"It seems that the other party has spent a lot of effort in fabricating intelligence." Cao Ren sighed, "Just to create so many traces, it takes a lot of manpower. For a tactical deception, so many people were mobilized. It seems that Ardashir has run out of resources."

"It's probably the Kshatriya warrior corps led by Sakara. Only that corps can run around in various terrains and leave so many traces. It seems that the trace of Ardashir going to the mountain camp is also forged." Xiahou Dun said with a smile on his face. As long as Ardashir comes to the Helmand River ferry, everything will be fine. They will be well rested and fight Ardashir hard. Not to mention how fierce the fight will be, at least many problems will be solved on the spot.

"This is the only possibility. Speaking of which, shouldn't we also train such a mountain high-speed mobile corps? This corps is very difficult to deal with in the Beigui Mountain area." Cao Ren said to Xiahou Dun.

Unlike the Stable Shield Guards, this legion is strong in that it can jump between mountains as if it were walking on flat ground. The all-terrain passability and mobility brought by the Divine Foot Pass can be brought to the limit in this mountainous terrain. In such a place, even if a few guards blocked Sakara, the other side would just run up the cliff like mountain sheep. 89° is a slope for them, a way to go, so after entering Beigui, Sakara really felt like a fish in water.

Of course, from a certain perspective, it is obvious that the Brahmins had ulterior motives in setting up such a legion, but it doesn’t matter now. It doesn’t matter whether they had good intentions or not, it has all become a historical memory.

"We'll talk about it later. Rush over, set up defenses on the spot, and wait for Ardashir's arrival!" Xiahou Dun said excitedly.

On the other side, Le Jin and Li Dian were summarizing the intelligence of the investigators, because after arriving here, the intelligence they had found was too outrageous. The entire area around the Helmand River ferry, except for the road that the Han army came in, was full of traces of Ardashir.

If they had not known that Ardashir did not have so many troops, based on the reconnaissance information alone, Le Jin and Li Dian would have thought that they were surrounded by Ardashir.

"Be careful. Although Ardashir does not have so many troops, the other party was able to leave so many traces here. The problem is actually very serious." Li Dian cautiously called to the officers under his command.

"Kill!" Just as the main force of Cao's army was about to advance to the Helmand River crossing, there was a loud bang, and then in the heavy rain came a deafening shout of killing, "Cao's army, die!"

Cao Ren and Xiahou Dun, who were on the front line, looked gloomy. Although the soldiers on the front line were staggering all the way and did not march at their best, they still maintained considerable physical strength. Moreover, they had years of experience on the battlefield. When they heard the shouts of killing, they simply raised their shields and bent their bodies, commanding their soldiers to line up to fight the enemy. There was no panic at all on the frontline officers and soldiers.

The javelins flew over from the front with a sharp whistling sound. The legion under Gulgan's command was a strange scimitar assault force with instant power burst as its core.

After the Kushan Empire's scimitar commandos were reorganized by Ardashir, some of their elite talents were reshaped, and thus this backbone legion with instant power burst as its core was formed. Although logically speaking, the positioning of this legion was quite strange and it was completely different from what Ardashir had originally envisioned, Gurgan used this legion very well.

With the special skill of integrating strength, exerting force from the soles of the feet and releasing it with talent, the spear was accelerated from zero to more than two hundred meters per second in an instant. The horrifying scream pierced through the rain curtain and stabbed towards the Han soldiers, directly knocking to the ground those soldiers who were behind the first line and had not yet raised their shields.

The shouts and cries of killing coming from all directions frightened all the Han soldiers. Fortunately, most of the Han soldiers were experienced in the battlefield and were not shaken. However, the invisible opponents in the rain and the spears flying from time to time still put great pressure on the Han army, as if the traces of semi-encirclement of the Han army detected before were really Ardashir's tens of thousands of main forces.

"Ardashir!" Cao Ren roared at the rain in front of him.

When Cao Ren launched an attack forward, Cao's flank was attacked by Bakza. Tavasdes had sent people to contact Bakza before, and Gurgan's arrival made the two of them successfully meet. With tens of thousands of troops, Gurgan became bolder and immediately deployed his troops around the Helmand River. After hearing Gurgan's plan, Bakza was willing to cooperate with the other party.

This information gap made Cao Ren think that the one making noise in front of him was Ardashir's main force. In addition, another army that was said to be very large attacked Cao Hong's troops. Cao Ren naturally determined that the other party was Ardashir's main force. In other words, the other party had used some unknown method to reach the Helmand River ferry before him!
To put it bluntly, the surprise attack plan completely failed, and the idea of ​​waiting for the enemy to tire themselves out was basically nonsense. Instead, Ardashir seized the opportunity and ambushed them on the Helmand River.

Cao Ren was extremely unwilling, but Ardashir was already blocking him here. Even if he started fighting on the spot, it would be of no value. He could only fight and organize people to retreat to Kandahar.

Failed to get up, it was too cold, miserable