Mythical Three Kingdoms

So now Sunx Quan was somewhat fearful of battle; after all, even if he did nothing, the Parthians were still giving him a lot of gifts—why should he take part in such a dangerous war?

It was just that they had previously agreed to unify their general’s orders; to violate Zhuge Liang’s military command because of potential dangers, Sunx Quan also felt was somewhat not worth it.

Though he really didn’t want to admit it, Sunx Quan wasn’t blind either. Petty as he might be, as long as he was still human he could see how utterly abnormal Zhuge Liang’s strength was.

Thus, under Zhuge Liang’s orders, Sunx Quan decided to bring Pan Zhang, Lyu Meng, the Elite of Danyang, and others together to go attack the Romans.

By the way, at the beginning Sunx Quan hadn’t planned to believe what Zhou Yu told him before he left—namely, that if the situation turned bad, he should abandon command over the Elite of Danyang, let them merge with the Xiliang Iron Cavalry, and then have Pan Zhang lead the trusted aides to charge together.

At first Sunx Quan had thought Zhou Yu was teasing him, but seeing the current situation, Sunx Quan felt that if things really reached that point, he had better listen to Zhou Yu. It seemed that in commanding troops, he did have a bit of a gap with Zhou Yu—mm, just a tiny bit.

In the end, when you only have one life, it’s best not to go looking for death.

After Li Jue, Yuan Tan, and the others excitedly led their troops away, Zhuge Liang began to follow the Sassanid Fars in pursuit of the Fourteenth Legion. Though everyone knew that legion’s speed was only slightly slower than the White Horse at its One Talent peak.

If we’re being practical, if they wanted to run, there was basically no way to pursue them. To put it less politely, given the variations Zhuge Liang had already derived in the Eight Formation Diagram, if Li Youu’s speculation was correct—that every Military Formation had corresponding Legion Talents and Elite Talents—then once this legion decided to retreat it would be truly hard to encircle and block them.

”Huh, the Fourteenth Legion actually ran to Akkad, and didn’t continue moving toward the Northwest?” Zhuge Liang said in puzzlement as he listened to the newly arrived intelligence.

”Do they still want to fight us? Fight a city offense-defense battle? Given the Fourteenth Legion’s capabilities, once the battle’s done, even if we’re prepared we might not be able to stop them from withdrawing—but what’s the point? Their strength is already far weaker than ours.” The Sassanid Fars was also somewhat puzzled.

But this confusion only lasted a moment. Very soon, the Sassanid Fars threw it to the back of his mind. ”Whatever, whether they want to fight us in a city assault or not, if the enemy wants to fight, are we going to be afraid?”

”Hmm, why do I feel...” Sima Yi stroked his chin; with such a disgusting Talent as the Fourteenth Legion’s, there had to be other Talents that suited them even better.

”Should we maybe try...” Zhuge Liang turned his head toward Sima Yi and said. Before he could finish, he saw Sima Yi’s gloomy expression; in that instant the two of them both confirmed it.

”The Fourteenth Legion definitely has a whole-army Calm Talent, and with their speed they can absolutely withdraw from this city quickly under any circumstances. But Parthia definitely can’t. Even though they have priests who can call down rain, that’s far from enough. Back during the chaos in Chang’an...” Zhuge Liang stopped there, because any further and he’d be touching on certain people.

During the chaos in Chang’an it wasn’t that no Civil Official thought of summoning rain; it was that for a city-wide conflagration, normal rain simply couldn’t put it out. What’s more, when you set a fire, you usually use oil; that stuff is very hard to extinguish with water, and once the oil burns out, the fire just gets bigger.

Of course, the most important point is that in this era, all buildings were of earth-and-wood construction; the fire burns from within, and once the blaze has started, rain really might not do anything.

”General of Fars, I suggest we don’t go in for now. Let’s try throwing some kerosene in with Stone Throwers.” Zhuge Liang did a rough estimate and basically confirmed that this was the other side’s intent. After all, for someone ruthless enough to divert the Two Rivers, burning down a city was nothing.

In fact, the biggest problem with fire attacks lies in the Cloud Qi. To put it bluntly, this method uses flames to force all the Inner Qi within the materials to be released; burn enough, and when too much is forcibly released all at once, it will eventually form an effect similar to Cloud Suppression.

That’s also why, if some truly insane person burns down an entire city, even Inner Qi Manifestation will be completely suppressed. If the fire field is large enough they might even get burned to death; of course, generally speaking, as long as you fly away before the flames grow too enormous, you can still make it.

”Hm?” At Zhuge Liang’s words, the Sassanid Fars froze for a moment, then instantly realized what Zhuge Liang meant. Fire Strategy was very popular in every country in the world.

”It’s indeed very possible.” The Sassanid Fars gazed at Akkad Fort across from them. With Parthia’s strength, storming in wasn’t difficult, and if the Fourteenth Legion’s goal was arson, then street fighting would be unavoidable.

At that point, if Benito set the city on fire, then with the possible Elite Talents of the Fourteenth Legion they could definitely retreat steadily, with very low losses—but Parthia would suffer catastrophic casualties. Any Elite Troops, when facing water and fire, are hard-pressed to avoid death.

Back then, Liu Ye, in a fit of madness, had created a fire field spanning over a hundred li on the grasslands, with the wind blowing from the perimeter inward; in the end, a single fire tornado burned both the Trap Formation and the Vanguard to cinders.

Honestly, if it hadn’t been two Military Spirit Legions at the center of that blaze, any other legion would definitely have been burned to death.

”Datis, order men to build ten Stone Throwers for me, and bring over the kerosene transported by Pack Horses as well.” While ordering the army to tighten the encirclement around Akkad, Fars simultaneously commanded the craftsmen to build Stone Throwers.

However, once Fars had sealed Akkad Fort up tight, the troop density at each point around the city clearly thinned out a lot.

”Do the Parthians intend to mount a full-scale assault on the city?” Looking at the low walls and the Parthian Army tightly encircling Akkad Fort outside, Benito muttered to himself with a hint of puzzlement.

As for safety, Benito didn’t give it much thought. As far as their Fourteenth Legion was concerned, there was no shortage of ways to escape. Even if they were surrounded tightly, the tighter the encirclement, the weaker the defensive power at each point, and the easier it would be for them to break out.

When the Parthians got their Stone Throwers in place, Benito found himself even more unable to follow the Parthians’ rhythm. With Akkad’s low walls, and given that his own original intent was to let the enemy into the city for street fighting, the Parthians didn’t need any siege weapons at all to charge solidly into Akkad City; under these circumstances, what was the point of Stone Throwers?

Yet in the next moment, the Sassanid Fars lined up ten Stone Throwers, casually picked a stone to calibrate their range, and after confirming they could clear the walls, placed jars of kerosene into the slings, lit them, and, under Benito’s dumbfounded gaze, hurled them into Akkad City.

The gale that followed came sweeping in the instant a dozen jars of kerosene were thrown into Akkad Fort; even Benito was stunned. He realized that the two stratagems he had wracked his brain to devise had already been cracked by the Parthians.