"If I am willing to pay tribute to Seleucid and bow to him like Anxi..."
"And the general of the Silk Kingdom came to attack Dawan again. Does that mean he is attacking Seleucid?"
Phraates I said "Oh" and then nodded.
Anxi, Dawan, etc. actually all have the same interests.
Parthia is the westernmost barrier in Central Asia. Once Parthia is breached by the Seleucids, Dawan will be next.
This is also one of the reasons why Anxi can maintain friendly relations with Dawan, Lan and others.
The truth about dying lips and cold teeth is not only understood by the Central Plains.
At this time, the suggestion put forward by King Dawan was also for their common interests... Since there is Seleucid in the west and Silk Kingdom in the east, and these two countries are very powerful compared to Dawan, why not let them
Are they fighting over each other?
The more Phraates I thought about it, the more he was right, so that no matter what the outcome was, it would be beneficial to them:
If Seleucid wins, he will drive the Silk Kingdom out of Central Asia.
If the Silk Kingdom wins, it means that Anxi can become independent from Seleucid.
For Dawan, there is no loss, because anyway, they have to suffer some financial losses and bow their heads, so does it make any difference to whom they bow their heads?
Even for the King of Dayuan, it was easier to bow to the Seleucid Empire.
Because everyone knew that Seleucid was powerful, surrendering to him in exchange for peace had always been under discussion and hesitation, but now it was just put on the agenda again.
And if you bow to the Silk Kingdom, you will be slapping yourself in the face, and you will go to war for a few horses without caring about the life and death of the soldiers... This is another matter.
So the two of them hesitated no longer.
While King Dayuan stabilized Shen Bing and sent people to negotiate, he also sent envoys to Seleucid.
The king of the Seleucid Empire at this time was Antiochus III.
Antiochus III was the youngest son of Seleucid II. In order to prove that he was the best monarch among the Seleucid kings since the founder of the country, Seleucid I, he carried out a veritable conquest east and west.
The east attacked Central Asia and India, and the west went all the way to Egypt, Greece, and conflicts with the Romans.
His mistake was that he overestimated his own strength and thought he could fight on two fronts... fight in the west and fight in the east. As a result, the national strength was too much and the Romans were defeated and driven out of the Mediterranean.
At this time, when Antiochus III heard that Dawan was going to surrender, he immediately agreed.
He happily said to General Akevus:
"Look, the Seleucid Empire has added a large territory."
"When I conquer India, we will reach places that even Alexander could not conquer!"
Akefs said hesitantly:
"Your Majesty, Dawan has always been hostile to us."
"They may be just trying to take advantage of us by showing kindness to us at this time."
Antiochus III replied:
"So what?"
"If we don't establish our own authority, how can we make them surrender?"
"What's more... we cannot allow that silk country to get involved in Central Asia."
"Ready your spear, my general!"
"Kick them out!"
Akevus responded and stepped back to prepare.
Shen Bing was not aware of the changes in the situation outside at all.
At this time, there was a turmoil outside the city and they were actively preparing for war... Dawan sent 50,000 troops, Anxi sent 50,000 troops, and Seleucid sent 30,000 troops.
Seleucid's 30,000 troops was not a lot, at least they and even Dawan and other countries didn't think it was a small amount.
Because the proud Seleucid Empire thought that one of their soldiers could withstand ten, and that it would not be a problem to deal with 30,000 infantry against several times the number of nomadic cavalry.
Therefore, sending 30,000 troops to deal with the 50,000 cavalry of the Silk Kingdom is still to give face to the Zusi Kingdom. The purpose is to win this battle simply and quickly to shock Dawan and other countries and let them understand who is the king of Central Asia.
Shen Bing did not expect that the complicated interests would lead to the alliance of several countries to deal with the Qin army... This is not the case in history. When Li Guangli attacked Dawan, no other country helped, and only Kang Ju was watching. I want to take a bite of it when it is weak.
How could Shen Bing have imagined that the situation at this time was different from that of the Han Dynasty, so the battle situation was completely different.
At this time, Shen Bing was busy building the defense of Lan City.
As the forward base of the Qin army and a water source and granary, Lanshi City must be defended, otherwise one day the army will attack Dawan more than 200 miles away, but the enemy will attack Lanshi... The Qin army will have lost all their previous efforts.
A few days later, I heard Wang Ben report:
"General, according to reports from the reconnaissance cavalry, there is a strange army marching towards Lan's City."
Shen Bing asked casually:
"What's weird?"
Wang Ben replied:
"This army... is mostly infantry, with only a small amount of cavalry."
"The infantrymen hold a shield in one hand and a spear dozens of feet tall in the other. They look like hedgehogs."
Shen Bing couldn't help being surprised and said:
"Macedonian Phalanx?"
Wang Ben replied:
"Ma... Qedon? I have never heard of it."
"But it is said that they are indeed arranged in a square formation. It is quite appropriate to say it is a square formation."
Shen Bing asked again:
"Are they hostile to us?"
Wang Ben replied:
"There is indeed hostility."
"When my scout knight approached, he was shot back by his crossbowmen."
Shen Bing asked again:
"How far is it from our army?"
Wang Ben replied:
"More than a hundred miles, it took about three days to arrive."
"In addition, there seems to be movement in Anxi and Dawan."
Then Shen Bing knew what was going on.
If you don't know the relationship between Anxi, Dawan and Seleucid, you may think that the Seleucid army is here to fight Anxi or Dawan.
But Shen Bing knew that was not the case.
Parthia is already a vassal state of Seleucid, and Dawan is on the other side of Parthia...
So the Seleucid army had only one goal, and that was Lan City.
Shen Bing didn't know why the Seleucid army suddenly sent troops to the Lan clan to fight against him, but he knew that he could no longer waste time and let the Seleucid advance.
Because Shen Bing knew that although the Macedonian phalanx like Seleucid moved slowly, the dense spear formation was an almost indestructible tank for the cavalry...
Alexander the Great led a mixed team of about 50,000 infantry and cavalry to defeat the entire Persian army of hundreds of thousands... It is rumored that Persia had an army of one million, but a million troops is definitely an exaggeration.
If the Seleucid army is allowed to reach Lan's City, then those Macedonian phalanxes will form a group outside the city and surround Lan's City like the Great Wall.
At that time, Shen Bing's cavalry will have no choice but to rush out...
The result of not flushing is to be trapped in the city and starve to death day by day, running out of food.
The result of the charge was not much better, because the cavalry were looking for death when they charged into Marston's Square, and they would die faster.
Therefore, there is only one way to deal with this kind of troops, which is not to let them get close to and surround the Lan clan.