amaotonovel Chapter 715 A Divided Rest is the Best Rest
Chapter 715 A Divided Rest is the Best Rest
Kneeling as you walk over?
That's incredibly insulting.
Ardashir felt his blood boil and wished he could rush over and fight Ma Chao to the death.
But when he saw the Han army pressing in and the archers with their bows drawn and aimed at him, Ardashir chickened out, because he knew that if he said no, he would be shot into a pincushion.
He had only suffered a defeat, which did not fundamentally damage him. He still had a sufficient population, a vast territory, and a chance to make a comeback. But if he died here, he would lose everything.
Therefore, after weighing the pros and cons, Ardashir threw away his sword and took off his armor. Under the collective gaze of his subordinates, he knelt on the ground and slowly moved towards Ma Chao.
The ground was icy cold in winter, and the snow was covered with blood-stained snow. As soon as you knelt down, a bone-chilling cold penetrated your knees and went straight to your bone marrow, making you shiver.
But what is this chill compared to the humiliation of being stared at by subordinates?
As he moved forward, a powerful sense of humiliation quickly overwhelmed Ardashir, making him secretly vow that if he had the chance to return alive this time, he would work hard and strive to avenge the humiliation he had suffered today tenfold or a hundredfold.
Meanwhile, Ma Chao, Pan Jun, and Tu Lin had successfully reunited and were all smiling as they watched Ardashir kneeling before them.
They were unaware of Ardashir's thoughts, and even if they had, they wouldn't have cared.
After several major battles, they were surprised to find that the Parthian Empire, though seemingly powerful, was actually disorganized and weak. It looked like a giant, but was actually bloated and lacked strength, and could be easily knocked down.
The Parthian Empire lagged behind the Han Dynasty in terms of its system, ideology, and culture. For Parthia to catch up with the Han Dynasty, it would need a Qin Shi Huang plus Emperor Wu of Han, but Ardashir clearly did not have that ability. So what was there to fear?
Under the watchful eyes of Ma Chao and his two companions, along with tens of thousands of Han soldiers, Ardashir finally knelt before Ma Chao, forcibly suppressing his humiliation and anger, and managed to force a smile. With utmost piety, he kowtowed and said, "Ardashir, the patriarch of the Sassanid family, greets the great General of the Han Dynasty."
Ma Chao stared at him for a long time before saying, "I captured a prisoner named Huo Sidu in Mulu City. I heard he's your brother, right? Come on, I'll take you to reunite with your brother."
The rest was simple: take in the prisoners and clean up the battlefield.
Taking hundreds of thousands of prisoners is a huge undertaking. Fortunately, Ma Chao did not have the same idea of treating prisoners as Guan Xing did. He would not even give the prisoners of the Han Dynasty the minimum treatment. He just wanted to keep an eye on them to prevent them from escaping, because they were not subjects of the Han Dynasty.
Since they weren't subjects of the Han Dynasty, Ma Chao had no basic compassion for them; what did it matter to him whether they lived or died?
The poor prisoners were herded together like livestock. The ordinary prisoners were alright, but the wounded prisoners were in a terrible state. The lightly wounded were herded together with the ordinary prisoners, and whether they lived or died depended entirely on their fate. The seriously wounded were simply abandoned and left to wail in pain in the blood, or even be eaten by wild animals.
Not only that, before leaving, Ma Chao also sent men to take their weapons and steal all their valuables, including their armor and clothing.
Ma Chao is very poor now. Although he has seized a lot of supplies from Tanbei City, he has millions of people to feed, and these supplies are not enough. So he is frantically looting the enemy's supplies on the battlefield. Food, weapons, horses, cloth, he takes everything he can, not even a needle.
Now Ma Chao has been taught a lesson by reality and has begun to be more frugal and thrifty.
The battlefield, spanning dozens of miles, was so vast that it took Ma Chao three whole days to clean it up. He didn't return to Tambe City until the morning of the fourth day. As soon as he got back to the city, he received a message that an envoy from the Parthian Empire had arrived, saying that he wanted to discuss with Ma Chao a grand plan to resist the Sassanid family.
Upon hearing this, Ma Chao immediately erupted in anger, shouting, "I've already finished the battle and you're only just arriving now? Where the hell were you all this time?"
Besides, do I need to consult you when I deal with the Sassanid family? Who do you think you are?
Ma Chao did not immediately receive them but left them aside. After locking Ardashir and Hos together, he summoned his generals for a meeting.
In the main hall of the city lord's mansion, generals of all ranks from the Han, Qiang, Xiongnu, and Western Regions allied forces gathered together, discussing the course of the great battle and their own achievements in a very harmonious atmosphere.
After chatting for half an hour, Ma Chao clapped his hands to stop them and began to address the main topic of the meeting: "Although we won a great victory in this battle, it still hasn't changed our situation of lacking food and clothing. We need to come up with a plan for what to do next."
Although they seized a lot of supplies from the Sassanid family, these supplies were finite and would be used up as they were used. What would they do when they ran out?
Living off our savings is not a solution; we must find a way to secure a stable source of resources.
These roughnecks, who only knew how to kill, were helpless against this and all instinctively looked at Pan Jun.
Pan Jun was a civil official, and this was his duty; he had no choice but to do it.
Pan Jun coughed a few times to clear his throat and said, "There is still some time before spring. From spring to autumn harvest, it will take at least eight or nine months. The grain we seized from the Sassanid army can only last for six months at most. That means our millions of people will have a food shortage of at least three months. We must find a way to make up for the food shortage of these three months as soon as possible."
Food cannot be cut off. Don't even mention three months; try going without it for three days.
Therefore, food should always be the top priority.
Knowing he had more to say, everyone tacitly refrained from interrupting and waited quietly for what he would say next.
Pan Jun continued, "The only way to get the scarce grain is from the Sassanid family and the Parthian Empire. The Parthian Empire is simple; just make the king obediently send the grain. If he doesn't, we'll go and get it ourselves. I believe that after this great victory, the Parthian king will not dare to refuse our request."
From the perspective of the Parthian Empire, Ma Chao annihilated the Sassanid army, which had been unable to lift its head in one battle, and even captured its commander, Ardashir. If he were to attack Ctesiphon, the Parthian capital, how would Ctesiphon resist?
Therefore, Pan Jun did not believe that the Parthian king would dare to refuse his request.
Pan Jun continued, "We can directly ask Parthia for grain, but the amount of grain we ask for must be carefully calculated. We need to make Parthia feel the pinch, but not to the point of pushing them to the brink. We need to strike the right balance."
"As for the Sassanid family, we'll talk to Ardashir directly and have him redeem himself and his brother with grain."
"What?" Tu Lin asked in astonishment, "You mean you want to let Ardashir go back?"
Pan Jun nodded and said, "He must be sent back. If he doesn't go back, the Sassanid vassals will have to return to the Parthian Empire."
"Don't forget that the Sassanid family still possesses vast territories and domains. The relationship between these territories and Parthia is like that between Cao Cao and the Han Dynasty. In reality, they belong to Cao Cao, but in name, they belong to the Han Dynasty."
"The Sassanid family is a vassal of the Parthian Empire, and the lands they occupy are all within the Parthian Empire's territory. As long as the Sassanid family exists, they will naturally follow the Sassanid family to fight against Parthia. But if the Sassanid family is gone, do you think these family lords will become independent and rule as kings when faced with our threat, or will they return to Parthia and regroup under the Parthian king's command?"
Everyone fell silent. Applying the model of the Han Dynasty, if the Cao family were destroyed, the gentry of the Central Plains would naturally gather around Emperor Liu Xie, without a doubt.
Pan Jun continued, “A unified Parthia poses too great a threat to us. A divided Parthia is the best Parthia. Only when the Sassanid family is hostile to the Parthian Empire can we play both sides, extorting one and blackmailing another, never having to worry about money. Therefore, we must never allow Parthia to be unified again.”
Ma Chao frowned and said, "That's too troublesome. Why don't we just destroy the Parthian Empire and the Sassanid family, and then unify the Parthian Empire ourselves?"