They always made the river work for them, not against them. By mapping every ford, bridge and potential crossing, they could decide where to push an army and where to hold back, turning a natural barrier into a deliberate choke point. With their engineers, they could build pontoon bridges in hours, turning a sluggish march into a rapid thrust. The key was to control the flow of supplies too—if you held the bridgehead, you could cut off the enemy’s resupply and force a retreat. So every river crossing was a calculated risk, a point where engineering, logistics and battlefield timing had to sync perfectly.