Chapter 341 The decisive battle is coming

Antioch III has passed away!

Almost as the Qin Expeditionary Army arrived at the city of Babylon, this outstanding ruler of the Seleucid Dynasty lowered his head in front of another even better opponent.

"Walk!"

After spitting out a mouthful of turbid blood without any effort, Antioch III fled from the north of Babylon along the spacious post road towards Syria under the protection of a group of trusted guards.

The city of Babylon, located on the banks of the Euphrates River, is a plain city. From the overall terrain, there is no mountain to support it. Such a city is not conducive to the defense. The reason why Antioch III fled was because he saw this weakness. He hoped to run back to the Syrian Plateau first, and then use the favorable terrain to resist the Qin army. On the other hand, he also wanted to gather elite troops and then fight with the Qin army.

In fact, if Antioch III could calm down, he might have seen that in addition to his weaknesses, he also had strengths. The Euphrates River flowed through the middle of the city of Babylon, and the main prosperous streets in the city were located in the east of the river, which allowed the defenders to avoid the danger of crossing the river and fighting on the second line.

At the same time, due to the convenience of soil extraction, the walls of Babylon City are made of mud bricks, sometimes with some high towers, with the widest part of the exterior wall reaching seven feet.

If the Seleucids had a spell, it would be possible to stick to a big city like Babylon. After all, the total population of this city, including the residents of the city, reached 150,000.

All the people are soldiers.

If the Seleucids understood this seemingly rogue and advanced tactic, the Seven Thousand Qin Expeditionary Force would inevitably fall into the same Iraqi squat as the Americans in later generations. Fortunately, Antioch III was also an alien invader to the residents born and raised in the Mesopotamian Basin.

What made Fuge even more thankful was that during the period of occupying the city of Babylon, Antioch III, a guy who only knew how to conquer by force, could not leave any good impression on the people here.

In order to save his life, Antioch III did not even inform the Seleucid soldiers on the second line guarding the city, so the situation on the battlefield instantly turned into a unilateral massacre.

The more than 3,000 Seleucid army that had lost unified command was in chaos, occupied trenches, houses, rivers and bridges and other important strongholds, but could not organize any strong resistance or defeat. When the Qin army rushed and attacked like a bamboo shoot, the Seleucid army was like tofu that could be broken at the touch, and could not withstand the knocks at all.

"Send an order, the army enters the city!"

In just two days, when the Qin army's fierce shouts of killing resounded across the banks of the Euphrates River, and when Istalmen (named after the goddess of ancient Babylon) was hit by the Qin Expeditionary Force's rush, the city of Babylon was captured. Perhaps, rather, the Qin army occupied the city of Babylon, which was abandoned by the Seleucids.

Three thousand defending troops dispersed under the Qin army's offensive. The enemy generals who defended the city were shot dead. Only a few hundred people fled along the road leading to Syria to the capital of Antioch City of Seleucid. At this point, the two Qin troops were surrounded by more than 80,000 Seleucid's main forces fighting in the Daxia area like two iron pliers.

In the northeast corner of Babylon City, in front of the world-famous great building ‘Air Garden’.

The generals of the Qin Expeditionary Army led by Fu Ge were proudly looking up at this magnificent palace built by aliens in the posture of a victor. Under the sunlight, the golden roof of the sky garden shone brightly and dazzlingly.

"My generals, do you know what this palace in the air is called?" In the face of such an amazing miracle, the Qin generals were left with only a shock.

Yingbu swallowed and sighed: "Ship Fu, is there a name for this palace? What's the name? Well, if I, Lao Ying, could live in this palace for even one day, I would be content in this life!"

"Look at your promising prospects, I tell you that this palace has another name, called Sky Garden. There is also a wonderful and beautiful story in this name. Do you want to hear it?" Fu Ge smiled and said to Yingbu and the Qin generals.

"Ha, Fu Shuai knows this foreign country. I, Lao Ying, really admires it. Tell me, what good stories are there in it--" Ying Bu said impatiently.

"Let's go, let's talk while entering the palace-!" Fu Ge raised his way up the steps and said loudly.

Then, he told the whole story of the history he knew about the Sky Garden.

The sky garden is also called the Xuanyuan. It is said that the new Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II married the princess of Medes as the queen. The princess is beautiful and charming, and is deeply loved by the king. However, over time, the princess's sad face gradually grew. Nebuchadnezzar somehow said, "My hometown is covered with green mountains and flowers and plants. And here is the endless Babylonian plain, and even a small hill cannot be found. How long I long to see the mountains and winding mountain paths in our hometown again!"

It turned out that the princess was homesick. In order to soothe the beauty's heart, Nebuchadnezzar II ordered the craftsmen to build layers of stepped gardens in his palace according to the scenery of the Medes Mountains, with strange flowers and plants planted on them, and a quiet mountain path was opened in the garden, with gurgling water beside the path. The craftsmen also built a city tower in the middle of the garden, standing in the air. The ingenious garden scenery finally won the princess's favor.

In the later period of history known to Fu Ge, in the second century AD, when Greek scholars rated famous buildings and sculptures around the world, they listed "Air Garden" as one of the "Seven Wonders of the World". Unfortunately, "Air Garden", like other famous buildings of the Babylonian civilization, gradually disappeared in the rolling yellow sand in the long years that followed.

August 9, the first year of Tianqi in the Qin Dynasty.

A month after the Qin Expeditionary Force completed its occupation of the Mesopotamia, the main force of Qin who went to the Western Regions launched a life-and-death battle with the Seleucid army in Parthia.

This battle is the largest scale since the Qin-Hungarian War. Both sides sent more than double digits of troops. On the Qin side, there were not only 70,000 brave soldiers with the cavalry and the elite forces of the Northern Legion, but also more than 40,000 coalition forces of the Western Regions led by Zhang Huan. The two units combined together totaled about 110,000 soldiers; on the Seleucid side, the main force was 80,000 soldiers led by Antioch's younger brother Gusrishah, and there were also about 50,000 vassals pieced together by the two countries of Bactrice and Parthia, totaling about 120,000.

Both sides are evenly matched, elite vs. elite, ace vs. ace.

There were resourceful generals like Han Xin, as well as brave generals like Li Lie and Zhonglimei. The Seleucid general Gusrishah was not a weak person. After learning that Babylon City was captured by the Qin army, the Seleucid general who had destroyed many countries did not choose to retreat. He wanted to fight to the death and seek to survive.

"Defeat the Qin army, we go to Xianyang City to enjoy the taste of Eastern women!"

Gusrishah's agitation caused a group of crazy Seleucid soldiers to fall into a state of complete sanity. The prosperity of Qin capital Xianyang was long known to the merchants who came and went to the world's most mysterious and prosperous city to plunder and have freedom. For the Seleucids who were still in the wilderness, it was an irresistible dream.

"Ship Fu has occupied the city of Babylon, and the Seleucids' retreat has been cut off. It depends on us now. Should we drive this group of robbers into the sea, or let them go east to occupy Dayuan, Yutian, Loulan and Xianyang - the warriors of the Qin Dynasty, pick up the weapons in your hands and rush to kill!"

Compared with Gusri Shah's naked robber declaration, although Han Xin's pre-war agitation was less bold, it was just as tragic and exciting as the soldiers who went to war.

Whether it is the Qin people, the Loulan people, the Dayuan people, the Yuezhi people, the Jingjue people-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In order to protect your family from the invaders, fight bravely!

Even if the last drop of blood falls down, you have to lie on the battlefield with your back facing the sky.

Let the sky and the sky of heaven and earth testify for you, and let the blood-devouring yellow sand whimper and cry for you, you are the bravest army, and you are the most respectable soldiers.

With a knife in hand, you will cut off the enemy's head.

The horse runs its reins and gallops for three thousand miles.

With such a tragic belief that is hopeless and the passion of the wind and Yishuihan, on the banks of the Yarkand River, the Qin and the Western Regions coalition forces started a earth-shaking and violent fight with the Seleusian army.

Under Han Xin's outstanding plan, at the beginning of the war, the coalition forces used Zhang Huan's troops as bait and delayed Gusrishah's main force under the city of Gaofu (now Kabul) with a stubborn resistance. Faced with the tenacious resistance of the Western Regions army, Gusrishah repeatedly recruited his warlike troops to attack the city, but he had no choice but to retreat again and again.

The easy-to-defense and difficult-to-attack terrain restricted the attack of the Seleusian army. At the same time, when Han Xin saw that Zhang Huan had dragged the Seleusian main force, he immediately sent Zhonglimei out from the side of the Gaofu River to intercept Gusrishah. The two sides, which had already made Mars flew everywhere, immediately started a melee outside the Gaofu City.

There are battlefields everywhere, and fires filled with smoke everywhere.
Chapter completed!