Mythical Three Kingdoms

Carano was momentarily stunned upon hearing this, opening his mouth several times wanting to speak, but ultimately failing to do so.

”See, you don’t even have the confidence to surpass General Yan, and this is despite you having your so-called Three Talents. I know you want to say, General Yan is very strong, which is why you don’t dare to challenge him. In fact, General Yan isn’t strong.” Zhang Ren shook his head, looking at Carano.

”You lack the confidence to surpass him, yet you have the confidence to defeat me. I must say, you don’t even know strength from weakness. Between him and me, there’s really no difference in ability. The only disparity is in experience. If you can defeat me, you can defeat him, yet your conclusion makes me laugh.” Zhang Ren drank a bowl of wine and then put down the bowl as he said this.

”You can’t even discern strength from weakness.” Zhang Ren shook his head and said, ”In fact, you can’t even see which of us is actually stronger or weaker. Consider this carefully, after I annihilated your legion, what were my losses? A bitter victory is still a victory, a grand victory is also a victory. How do you define these two? What do you say?”

Carano’s face turned pale. He only thought about blocking Zhang Ren, but ultimately it was Zhang Ren’s superior command that used hidden reserves to defeat him, overlooking many details. Zhang Ren, after defeating him, still had the strength to attack the Kushan Rear Army, truly only had one way of soldiers at his command, managing to face two routes of Kushan Army and still broke through the Rear Army, attacking Albaz.

”Your defense is indeed good, but honestly, if my flank didn’t have to pass through there, I would have simply bypassed your defenses. You know how to leave reinforcements, bear the losses, and use attack to alleviate the pressure of defense, but your foundations are too poor.” Zhang Ren said, looking at Carano with a hint of sigh.

”The soldiers you command seem to be led effortlessly, but in fact, this isn’t your ability. This is probably what you call the soldiers’ innate cooperation, which is indeed a good ability, but it’s only natural collaboration of soldiers, lacking long-term strategic dispatch of a commander.” Zhang Ren said, curling his lips.

”To generals who aren’t proficient in troop dispatch, your method seems quite impressive, but to us generals who excel in command, it’s actually a very rudimentary style of combat where soldiers can’t grasp the bigger picture.” Zhang Ren chuckled softly.

”You can’t even be considered a commander, merely a Charging General. Your so-called Legion Talent is mostly just how your soldiers rely on your courage. As for your so-called King of Invincible Light Buddha Body, I don’t understand it, but let me ask, do you know how to dispatch?” Zhang Ren slowly asked the final question.

At this moment, Carano’s face turned pale; he was truly provoked by Zhang Ren’s words. In truth, Zhang Ren hadn’t noticed these details on the battlefield at the time, but after the battle, having time to reflect, he discovered a significant issue within the Kushan.

The Kushan generals and officers have a major problem; they’re generally not commanding large armies but are leading them. Their soldiers fight under their guidance, relying on the soldiers’ innate familiarity with each other, naturally following the generals and officers in battle.

It’s hard to say this is bad because soldiers possess inherent familiarity, so they can cooperate well. Under the guidance of generals and officers, the combat effectiveness they display is very steady.

Additionally, with generals and officers leading the charge, rather than commanding, this leads to their elite soldiers being able to break into Trap Formation, significantly boosting the army’s combat power. If they specifically train for the ability to Break Formation, the Kushan Legion’s combat potential could be quite reliable.

Yet this is only the positive side, the downside being most Kushan commanders are quite unfamiliar with directing armies. They rely on inherent cooperation between soldiers, neglecting the generals’ command of the legion.

This explains why, although Kushan learned the Han Dynasty’s military formations, the formations they use are quite simple, precisely because more complex formations demand high command skills from generals. Large-scale formations aren’t something that can be managed by mere instinct among soldiers.

Even when training the General’s Formation to become instinctive, initially it can’t avoid the requirement that the generals’ command skills must suffice; otherwise, everything is futile.

The tacit coordination among Kushan soldiers usually ranges from two to three hundred people, at most, and only a few dozen individuals at least. This mutual understanding is useless between soldiers from different origins.

This results in such tacit understanding being practically meaningless for large formations. Of course, it can still be used for simple formations like Round Formation, Phalanx, or Spearhead Formation.

However, it’s evident that within the Kushan Empire, after soldiers attain this mutual understanding, the generals serve more to Charge Generals, raising morale, showing disinterest or lack of opportunity to learn command and dispatch.

So, indeed, this comprehensive enhancement of soldiers’ combat power, boosting one’s own side’s morale fighting style is quite effective. According to Chen Xi, this is the Brave Faction’s combat style. Yet although the Brave Faction can perform miracles, it can also be neutralized.

Zhang Ren, in the last encounter with the opponent, fought head-to-head. After figuring it out, he realized that indeed, there’s no need to engage head-on; Kushan tactics have major flaws, especially apparent to a country like the Han Dynasty, where most generals have some degree of battlefield command and dispatch capability, Kushan weaknesses are very obvious.