Mythical Three Kingdoms

”Zichuan, in your impression, roughly how strong is the Kushan’s power?” Li Youu slowly opened his mouth and asked.

”My impression, huh... this is a really weird country. There’s no mistake that they’re a branch of the Great Yuezhi, but all of you know the Great Yuezhi are a Nomadic People, right? So what do you think an Empire built with the Great Yuezhi as the core would be best at?” Chen Xi raised his head to look at the sky. Kushan really is a very magical country. Mm, very magical.

But back to the point, any ethnicity that enters the South Asian Subcontinent, that India patch, will turn into a very magical country. Whether it was the previous Aryan Ethnicity, Great Xia, or the current Yuezhi, or the later India—every last one of them is especially magical.

”After all, they’re a Nomadic People. With that as the core to build an Empire, in theory it has to be Cavalry, similar to the Huns back then. But since Zichuan says it’s a magical Capital City, then probably what they’re best at isn’t Cavalry—Navy?” Guo Jia’s godlike, jumpy train of thought picked up Chen Xi’s topic and casually tossed out a subversive answer.

Chen Xi looked at Guo Jia as if he’d seen a ghost. He can even guess this—no wonder they call him a crow’s beak.

”It really is the Navy?” Jia Xu and the others saw Chen Xi’s expression and guessed about eighty percent of it. They immediately stared at Chen Xi in shock. A country founded by a Nomadic People, and in the end its strongest arm is the Navy—if they absolutely can’t give up Cavalry, then just how strong is their Navy?

”Yeah. Strictly speaking, instead of calling it Navy, you might as well call it Marines.” Chen Xi nodded silently as he answered. In terms of sailing tech, the Kushan Navy—even in the official history without Heaven and Earth Essence—was on the same level as the Europeans of the Age of Discovery, an extremely terrifying standard of navigation.

Just how freakish Kushan was as a country in official history—just the part Chen Xi knows is enough to make people feel they’ve lost their minds.

The magical Kushan spent a long First Stage doing business in Southeast Asia. Back then that country had occupied the Ganges Plain, then they rowed boats to Southeast Asia, seized parts of Malaysia and Indonesia, and later built supply points locally in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Judging from Kabe Bay, taking the normal sea route, the one-way voyage is about more than seven thousand four hundred kilometers.

This level is the legit, real-life maritime capability that Kushan developed around AD 150.

Of course, if you think that’s the ceiling of the Kushan Navy, then you’d be completely wrong. By around AD 180, Kushan’s maritime capability made another big leap forward.

During this period, the Kushan People began sailing to the South China Sea to do business with the Chinese, buying luxury goods like silk at low prices, then rowing their boats to the Arabian Sea, then on to the Red Sea, unloading in Egypt, and selling to the Romans. The one-way sea voyage for this route was already a standard ten to fifteen thousand kilometers.

And yet the Kushan just didn’t capsize. They repeatedly sailed to the South Blue to do business with the Han Dynasty.

This still wasn’t Kushan’s limit. Their limit came after AD 200.

After AD 220, with the rise of Sasanian Persia, Ardashir took advantage of Vasu Deva II being unable to suppress Kushan and plundered the Kushan Empire’s Central Asia territories. Vasu Deva II, helpless, took the sea route and asked the Han Dynasty to help mediate between Kushan and Sasanian Persia.

Of course, by that time the Han Dynasty was already dead. The Envoy Vasu Deva II sent met Cao Rui. At that point, Cao Rui obviously didn’t have the capability to mediate a war at that level; the Sasanian Persia Ardashir founded started right off as an Empire!

So he could only bestow some gifts, granting a title of ”Pro-Wei King of Great Yuezhi” to fob the other side off. Most importantly, the other side really did just go back like that.

How far was that round trip? More than fifty thousand li. Kushan was basically saying, ”Our maritime capability is just this terrifying.”

And that was in an era without Heaven and Earth Essence. In the current era, where Heaven and Earth Essence is overflowing everywhere and materials science has already knelt down, Chen Xi admits he really has no way to look directly at the Kushan Navy anymore.

If things go wrong, the Kushan Navy of this era, placed on another timeline—even up to the 21st century—might well still be the strongest Navy. Who knows how much change Heaven and Earth Essence will trigger in a naval warfare Empire that was already this fierce to begin with.

Anyway, the strong get stronger—that’s for sure. Kushan, whose Navy was already cheating in defiance of the heavens, gets magically overhauled by Heaven and Earth Essence again; just how strong will they become? Chen Xi says even he has trouble imagining it.

Though Taishi Ci had already described Kushan’s Thousand Sails Navy in great detail, and also described how their two fleets hung them up and beat them, by Chen Xi’s feel, this is way off from the level he had estimated.

To put it simply, if we go by the official history, with Kushan’s insane shipbuilding and maritime level—even setting aside their Land Forces—at the very least, in Navy they absolutely have a crushing advantage over the Han Dynasty.

The advantage is so big that, to spell it out clearly: even with Chen Xi making preparations in advance, facing Kushan he’d only get hung up and beaten. At least before any decisive, breakthrough progress shows up, the Han Dynasty’s naval warfare would absolutely have no way to deal with Kushan.

These guys, back in the Second Century, had merchant ships that could run fifty thousand li. You tell me, do you concede or not!

As for the Han Dynasty, was there any breakthrough progress from the Third Generation Ship to the Seventh Generation Ship? Chen Xi searched his conscience. As a key project, he’d been watching it all along. The Seventh Generation Ship is pretty good; it can largely close the gap between the Han Dynasty’s naval warfare and Kushan’s level. But can they win?

Frankly, Chen Xi doesn’t think so. If Kushan, under normal circumstances, still retains its former huge advantage in naval warfare, then even with the Seventh Generation Ship, you can only say the gap between the two sides has been shortened.

”Anyway, what I know about the situation is like this. There’s not much to say about Kushan’s Land Forces. As long as the Han Dynasty unifies, there is absolutely no country in this world that can surpass the Han Dynasty in Land Forces.” Chen Xi crossed his arms and propped up his head as he spoke.

”What exactly makes you think Kushan’s Navy needs to be strong to that level?” Li Youu said, his expression serious.

”It’s not a matter of needing to be that strong. It’s just that they are that strong. It’s like our Land Forces in the Central Plains—strength doesn’t need a reason.” Chen Xi frowned, slightly headachey, and explained.

Jia Xu nodded at these words, then after a pause he said, ”Actually, no matter how strong their Navy is, it doesn’t affect us that much. We can move in from the land route.”

”All right, enough, come on, here, I’ll give you the map, you teach me how to fight.” Chen Xi stretched out his hand and pulled out the world map from under his arm, handing it to Jia Xu, wearing an expression like, ”I’ll give you the map, you teach me how to use a land route to educate Kushan on how to behave.”

”I’ll do it, I’ll do it!” Jia Xu glanced at Chen Xi, spread out Chen Xi’s map, studied it carefully for a while, then handed the map back to Chen Xi. Without Navy, this war basically can’t be fought.

Even if Jia Xu doesn’t understand what an amphibious Ground Battle is, he can still see the Kushan Empire’s long coastline, and, given a Han Dynasty advance from the Southwest, the countless places along Kushan’s shores that are ideal for landings and raids.

Simply put, as long as Kushan wants to, their Navy drifting around in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal can casually pick suitable spots along that long coastline to land and strike at the Han Dynasty’s Logistics supply lines.

Anyway, Chen Xi doesn’t believe Jia Xu has the ability to guard that ridiculously long Logistics line in its entirety, because that’s simply impossible. Even if later on the aristocratic families are enfeoffed abroad, Kushan could still casually run around to the rear of the Han Army.

As long as you’re not far from the coastline, Kushan can load up hundreds of thousands of Land Forces on troop transports and encircle you from the rear. Of course, that would require the emperor to have enough iron-fisted authority, otherwise, given the relationship between Southern Kushan and the North, getting the Northern Land Forces to board the ships? What a joke!