Mythical Three Kingdoms

Benito indeed counts as a person with extraordinary decisiveness, especially when he returned to the Roman Eastern Province and joined with Dirina, bringing along an entire staff group, or rather, a civil official group. Benito no longer engaged in any probing but directly abandoned vast territories, intercepting step by step, continually harassing, using space to buy time.

Retreating from Dura-Europus all the way to Antioch, there were basically no large-scale engagements with the Parthians, mostly using harassing tactics to delay the Parthian advance. Yet, the Parthians, being numerous and powerful, pressed forward relentlessly, making it difficult for Benito to hold them up despite his best efforts.

Even though Roman citizens were recruited by Dirina, they weren’t trained or reorganized, thus despite experience, their combat power was hard to meet standards. Benito, being wise, naturally avoided confronting the Parthians head-on.

Similarly, after realizing the Roman situation, the Parthians, to expedite matters, were forced to split their forces, compelling Benito to retreat in order to avoid interception.

However, with the formation of a professional staff group dedicated to empire warfare, even Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi found it challenging to gain any significant advantage over Benito’s decisive sacrifices.

Despite the Han Army and Parthians possessing far superior hard power, the opponent’s tactic of trading space for time made it difficult to achieve major breakthroughs.

Later on, both the Parthian staff group and Zhuge Liang proposed splitting forces into three groups for a flanking maneuver, aiming to cut off the opponent’s retreat while they exchanged space for time.

Unfortunately, after the staff group’s involvement, the Romans gained a strategic edge with their understanding of terrain, despite the Parthians making initial advancements.

Upon detecting the Parthians’ movements, the Romans immediately countered.

At first, pretending to be unaware, they continued playing the strategy of space-for-time with the central Fars region.

When the Parthian left flank, intended for encirclement, was just days away from arrival, the Romans launched an attack on the Parthian left army, not waiting for the other two flanks to react, swiftly breaking through the encirclement and advancing east, eventually bypassing the right flank and withdrawing north.

After such incidents, the Parthian offensive became noticeably cautious, granting the Romans much-needed time for rest.

Not long after this, Vologases V arrived and once again executed a division of forces, with the left flank being the group that had pursued the Fifteenth Legion, almost leading to a major incident.

Due to a lack of success in pursuit operations, Ardashir became inexplicably agitated, coupled with the incompetence and reckless behavior of his allies, resulting in a deep thrust into the enemy encirclement due to excessive aggression.

Of course, Sheni Pei realized the futility of controlling Ardashir and abandoned the trio, Li Jue, Sunx Quan, and Ardashir as bait, attracting the opponent’s attack, then countering accordingly.

The outcome was as Sheni Pei predicted; less than twenty thousand soldiers charged en masse, pursued far beyond the left flank’s command range, and Benito indeed chose to swallow this force.

Despite the Romans’ retreat to Antioch, a decisive battle was needed to stabilize morale, Benito’s decisiveness ensured the Roman army largely survived, albeit at the cost of continuously losing land.

The previous strong strike during the Parthian encirclement period on the left flank cannot be seen as a great victory, merely stabilizing morale.

No matter how things have developed, Benito desperately needed a significant victory; though informed by his staff group that this twenty-thousand-strong legion was likely bait, Benito ultimately opted for an ambush.

Even though the terrain was flat and devoid of obstacles, plains do not preclude strategy; in reality, besides courageous combat and fire and water, all military strategies rely on local supremacy to achieve results.

Benito’s approach was similar. Under the design of the staff group, Li Jue, Ardashir, and Sunx Quan, who had not experienced warfare, were lured further from their original left path through strategic manipulation.

In fact, Lyu Meng and the shamaness with Li Jue had warned about these matters, but after consecutive victories, Sheni Pei could no longer restrain them.

Naturally, they were unable to constrain these determined individuals; although they succeeded in biting the Romans, they were swiftly reverse-encircled.

Fortunately, the Xiliang Iron Cavalry, the Elite of Danyang, and Ardashir’s main force were exceptional, while the Romans’ habitual ten volleys of arrows sent the Military Spirit Iron Cavalry skyward. Coupled with Sheni Pei’s prior planning, they tore open two massive breaches in the Roman encirclement.

Though the staff group warned Benito about the potential bait nature of Li Jue and others, he was mentally prepared for failure despite persuading them with his need for a major win.

With Benito deploying almost eighty percent of his forces, he positioned them upon Sheni Pei’s reinforcements’ arrival to the battlefield.

This action went far beyond Sheni Pei’s psychological estimation; unlike anticipated behavior upon full left flank arrival, the Romans expressed a determination to devour the left army regardless of heavy losses.

Thus, under Sheni Pei’s command, the left flank relied on overwhelming attacks to break through the encirclement and escaped, avoiding a hard confrontation.

There was also a significant realization from Sheni Pei and the shamaness that an all-out fight was not worthwhile; the Romans had a small chance to devour them forcefully, yet mutual devastation was against Han Dynasty interests.

Because of this battle, the Han Dynasty genuinely began viewing the Romans on equal terms; their strategic wisdom in warfare had become apparent.

Despite Roman losses exceeding those of the Han Army and Parthians, the battle ended with the Parthians and Han Army being encircled and ultimately repelled by the Romans.

From a strategic perspective, Benito achieved his goals, and by this point, he had already stalled for considerable time, with army morale restored.