Book 4: Chapter 3 (4) |
Thus, on May 10th, Prince Arslan of Pars led his army out of Peshawar fortress in order to retake the royal capital Ecbatana back from the Lusitanian army.
The 10,000 horsemen in the first formation were commanded by the newcomers Tus, Zaravant, and Isfan. The central force of 4,000 horsemen was commanded by Tus, the left flank force of 3,000 horsemen was commanded by Zaravant, and the right flank of 3,000 horsemen was led by Isfan.
The news of Prince Arslan’s departure from Peshawar reached Ecbatana, which was about 200 farsang (about 1,000 kilometers) away, five days later. Ironically, this speed was due to the efficiency and expert planning of the Parsian postal system.
King Innocentis VII of Lusitania, who received the news, immediately solved the problem with his own skills. He did so by delegating all the military power to his brother Guiscard, and then retired to his room to pray to God for victory.
In addition to the king, there was now another thing that made Guiscard feel dissatisfied and suspicious, and that was the behavior of Hilmes. Hilmes had stayed inside the fortress of Zabul since he captured it and had not returned to Ecbatana. When asked, he made excuses about repairing the fortress, which had been damaged in the battle, strengthening the underground waterways, and lording over the land himself.
In addition to that, the lands around the royal capital began to cry out about the lack of water.
"Everyone is throwing their problems at me alone. How about using your own brain to figure out how to solve it?"
He said this, but at night, Guiscard still sought the company of beautiful women from Lusitania, Maryam and Pars to spend the night with and enjoy his life.
"Send a messenger to Silver Mask! Tell him to leave some guards at Zabul fortress and return to Ecbatana immediately!"
After the matter of Silver Mask was finished, Guiscard called a meeting with fifteen of his major military generals. Two generals, Bauduin and Montferrat, had left Ecbatana in order to round up the troops scattered across the country. To Guiscard, these two men were the most competent, so the meeting was rather lacking in spirit due to their absence.
After the attendees made several less-than-helpful comments, Guiscard gave his instructions. He asked his men to assemble the soldiers stationed around Ecbatana as soon as possible and form a force of 100,000 men. The generals could not help but stir up a commotion at his words.
"We don't need to send out 100,000 troops at once! Rather, we should send out 10,000 soldiers first to see what happens before making a rash decision."
"Yes, yes! It's not easy to send out 100,000 troops at once!"
Dissenting voices rang out everywhere. Guiscard stared at the people present, and the generals who bore his gaze could not help but cower. Guiscard lowered his voice to make his speech more coercive.
"Prince Arslan's army, reportedly numbering 80,000, is advancing westward from the continental highway in great numbers. Even if they exaggerate their numbers, there must be at least 40,000 soldiers. Do you think you will have any chance of winning with 10,000 soldiers to touch an army of 40,000?"
"No…"
"Then, won't our 10,000 soldiers be wasted? This outcome also only gives Pars the propaganda material to defeat the Lusitanian army. Sending out smaller forces only does more harm than good. Understand?"
"Yes. His Highness the King's Brother's deep thinking is beyond our ability to match."
The generals couldn't help but feel admiration. Guiscard was pleased to be flattered by them, but the thought that he had to lead people who did not even understand this simple point to fight against the Parsian army disappointed him. He wanted to at least call back Bauduin and Montferrat as soon as possible and give them command of the actual battles, so he sent an envoy to the two generals.
Guiscard estimated the strength of Arslan to be about 40,000 men. Generally speaking, everyone exaggerated their troop strength. It was not unusual to even report a number that was several times the actual number.
In fact, at this time, Guiscard had already fallen prey to Narsus' psychological warfare. He made the number of his own troops smaller than the actual number, so that Guiscard would underestimate the strength of Parsian army.
"This is a cheap trick, but it would be good if the other side fell for it. Underestimating the opponent's strength is a common psychological weakness."
Narsus clarified this to Elam.
At this stage, Guiscard was indeed fooled. However, Guiscard was not a total fool, and he did not make the calculation of "if the opponent has 40,000 troops, we will send 50,000 troops". He wanted to prepare an army of 100,000 men and crush 40,000 of them in one breath, without a single drop of Lusitanian blood. Even Narsus would not have predicted this.
The war between Pars and Lusitania had begun in an invisible way that no ordinary man could imagine. The fight on the battlefield would be the very last stage of the war.
