amaotonovel Chapter 711 Poon Chun's Steelmaking
Chapter 711 Poon Chun's Steelmaking
Society develops little by little, and cities are built one by one.
In other words, city building is a long process, and it is impossible for cities to be everywhere and urbanization to occur instantly.
Take the Han Dynasty for example. The Han Dynasty currently has less than half the number of cities as the Ming and Qing Dynasties did, and it doesn't have a single city with a population of over one million.
If the Han dynasty was in such a miserable state, one can only imagine how miserable life was in Anxi during the same period.
The Parthian Empire was still in a slave society, with very few cities and mainly consisting of rural areas.
Rural areas don't have city walls; at most, they might have fences or earthen walls to keep out wild animals. Such defensive measures are barely enough to protect against large wild animals, let alone the ferocious Ma Clique army.
Furthermore, Parthian forging technology was several levels behind that of the Han Dynasty, and even inferior to that of the nomadic tribes of the grasslands. Their weapons were also far behind those of the Ma Clique army.
Although the Ma Clique army did not have the new products produced by the major steel mills in Jiangnan and still used the old weapons of the Han Dynasty, it was still able to overwhelm the Parthian army.
Once Pan Jun builds the Tambe Steel Plant and upgrades the weapons of the Ma Clique army, this gap will inevitably widen further.
This is a matter of overwhelming national power, which cannot be compensated for by intelligence or quantity.
Therefore, although Sasanian chieftain Ardashir led an army of 300,000, he had no chance of winning against the Ma Clique army.
Nevertheless, Ma Chao dared not be negligent. Together with Tu Lin, he led an army of 10,000 men, with guides leading the way, and sent out scouts to attack the Sassanid army.
The villages and towns along the way, with only palisades and walls, were no match for Ma Chao's army. Ma Chao slaughtered forests, cities, and villages, sustaining his war effort through constant warfare. In just over ten days, he reached the area between Tambe and Persepolis, where he encountered the Sassanid army. And then...
Ma Chao was not foolish enough to confront the 300,000-strong Sassanid army head-on. Instead, he harassed them like a kite, shooting an arrow and then running away.
As mentioned earlier, there are very few large cities within the Parthian Empire, and the surrounding areas are mostly open plains like grasslands, which are most conducive to cavalry movement. As long as Ma Chao is fast enough, the Sasanian army will not be able to catch up with him.
Ma Chao did exactly that, using various kite-flying tactics to overwhelm the Sassanid army.
Furthermore, the Sassanid army of 300,000 only included combat troops; it did not include the servants who escorted supplies, which were essentially Han laborers. If those were included, the number would exceed 600,000.
Moreover, the auxiliary soldiers not only lacked warhorses but also had to push carts and carry loads on their shoulders, making their marching speed no different from that of a snail compared to the cavalry.
These servants naturally became the main targets of Ma Chao's massacre of the forest. They were attacked by Ma Chao every few days, which infuriated Ardashir, but he was helpless.
However, Ma Chao also had a weakness: his cavalry sacrificed everything in pursuit of speed. As a result, although he defeated the servants transporting the grain and seized the grain, he could not take it with him and had to burn it. This made Ma Chao feel heartbroken.
Ardashir also felt his heart was bleeding. Helpless, he had no choice but to abandon his vassal soldiers and take the grain into the army for transport. Although this increased the difficulty of Ma Chao's attack, it also greatly slowed down the army's march.
But that's exactly the effect Ma Chao wanted. He wanted to stall Ardashir until Pan Jun's new weapons were ready and the equipment could be upgraded.
To forge weapons, one must mine, find a vein, extract the ore, and then forge it into weapons. It seems like a very long task, but it is not.
Don't forget that Ma Chao seized all the supplies in Tanbei City, including food and weapons.
In addition, Ma Chao and Pan Jun slaughtered all 50,000 defenders of Tanbei City. Few escaped. Although the bodies of these 50,000 defenders were burned, their armor and weapons were not wasted. Instead, they were stripped off and recycled.
These armors and weapons are made from readily available steel. Combined with the reserves in Tambe City, they could be melted down and remade to arm an army of 50,000 without any problem.
With 50,000 elite troops equipped with weapons and equipment several levels superior to those of the Sassanid army, wouldn't they be able to cut through the Sassanid army like butter?
From this perspective, the addition of Poon Chun would definitely give the Ma Clique a qualitative leap in strength.
Therefore, Ma Chao's current task is to buy time for Pan Jun and wait for Pan Jun's new weapon to be completed.
Therefore, after learning that Ardashir had moved all the grain supplies into the army camp to guard them personally, Ma Chao slowed down the frequency of his attacks, harassing the Sassanid army only once a day, just enough to prevent them from marching at full speed.
Ardashir was rendered helpless by this shameless tactic, and the scouts he sent out kept sending back news of Tanbei City. After learning that 200,000 Western Region allied troops were stationed outside Tanbei City, Ardashir became anxious and couldn't help but want to back down.
The enemy forces are not much smaller than our own and are well-rested and ready to fight. There is no chance of victory if we attack. Under such circumstances, retreat is undoubtedly the best option.
Unfortunately, he couldn't leave.
Retreat would be tantamount to admitting defeat. His city had been captured and his 50,000 troops had been ruthlessly slaughtered. If he did not retaliate, what would his generals think of him?
This will lose people's hearts.
More importantly, he was a traitor to the Parthian Empire, and most of his generals were former officials of the Parthian Empire. The reason they were willing to follow him was because his continuous victories gave these former Parthian officials hope that he could defeat Parthia and unify the world.
If this hope is lost, these former Parthian officials may immediately abandon him and return to the embrace of King Vologasis VI of Parthia. If that happens, it will not be as simple as just suffering a defeat; he may face the risk of his entire clan being wiped out.
Therefore, while Ardashir felt militarily that he should withdraw his troops to preserve his strength, politically he had no choice but to grit his teeth and continue fighting.
However, being constantly led by the nose by Ma Chao was too passive, so after much deliberation, Ardashir dispatched 30,000 elite troops, led by his trusted general Osmun, to launch a counter-encirclement campaign against Ma Chao.
The mission of these 30,000 troops was not to annihilate Ma Chao, but simply to keep an eye on him and prevent him from attacking the main force or hindering its march.
This made things difficult for Ma Chao, but he was still able to manage.
So the two sides engaged in a chase across the grassland, playing a game of cat and mouse to their hearts' content.
Meanwhile, in the city of Tambe.
Pan Jun was also actively forging weapons, but forging weapons required fuel. Although Hostu provided the location of a coal mine, the coal reserves were extremely small and the mining was very difficult.
What made Poon Chun even more desperate was that it was winter now, and the ground was all frozen soil, making mining impossible.
Fortunately, there is a lot of petroleum here. You can just dig a hole and it will ooze out. Moreover, the Han Dynasty had discovered the properties of petroleum decades ago, so Pan Jun knew about this stuff.
After learning about the other properties of lacquer from the local people, Pan Jun decided to use lacquer instead of coal as fuel for forging.
However, there are many problems to be solved because the stone paint is liquid and will produce a lot of black smoke when burned.
But this didn't stump the clever Pan Jun; it was simply a matter of building a few special furnaces and exhaust pipes.
However, during the burning of petroleum, Pan Jun discovered something interesting: distilling and then cooling the lacquer would produce thermal cracks, which would then produce something similar to coal that could be used in steelmaking.
Pan Jun was unaware that this stuff would later be called petroleum coke, with a carbon content of over 90%, making it an excellent material for steelmaking.
Moreover, the petroleum coke that Poon Chun unintentionally produced was the most primitive kind, without any deep processing, and its carbon content was probably only 60% to 70%.
But Pan Jun didn't build aircraft carriers; he only manufactured ordinary weapons, so the carbon content was sufficient.