When King Goshtasp completed his defiant response to Arjasp, he summoned the Turanian emissaries and dismissed them with profound scorn. Ashamed, broken-hearted, and clothed in despair, the envoys traversed the realm back to Khallukh. As they sighted the dark banners hovering over Arjasp's imperial palace, they dismounted their steeds with tearful eyes and sallow faces, bearing the stern roll of the Iranian king before their lord.
The royal scribe broke the seal and read aloud the uncompromising missive of Goshtasp. In it, the Iranian sovereign declared himself the rightful heir of King Lohrasp and the divine guardian of the Kianian throne, blessed by Almighty God with the Good Religion. He rebuked Arjasp as a vile, wolfish tyrant who had willfully chosen spiritual blindness over sacred wisdom. Scorning Arjasp's boastful threat to invade within two months, Goshtasp proclaimed that he would not wait two months nor four—he himself would march like a hunting lion at the head of hundreds of thousands of battle-hardened, noble-born spearmen descended from the pure line of Prince Iraj.
Goshtasp sang the praises of his invincible commanders—Zarir the Marshal and Prince Esfandiyar—whose gleaming armor and radiant maces cast light like the sun and moon. He mocked Arjasp's threats of defiling the Oxus and Jaxartes rivers, declaring that the warhorses of Iran would leap across waters as though they were dry earth, and that under God's holy decree, Arjasp's head would be trampled into the dust of battle.
Upon hearing these fiercely defiant words, the ruler of Paykand descended from his throne, stunned and overwhelmed with fury. The next morning at dawn, Arjasp dispatched his chieftains across the expanse of Turan to muster an overwhelming host. He placed three hundred thousand elite cavalry under the command of his two dark-hearted brothers, Kahram and Andaman, outfitting them with war elephants, drums, and shimmering banners of red, yellow, and violet.
Opening his royal treasuries, Arjasp distributed riches to his warriors and appointed Gurgsar—a ruthless commander known for his malice—as a senior general. He bestowed an elephant-headed banner upon the pillaging chieftain Bidarafsh, and appointed the fearless champion Khashash as vanguard and scout. To ensure absolute obedience, he set the sinister Hosh Div at the rear, commanding him to instantly execute any Turanian warrior who dared to turn back in fear. Swollen with hatred, the monstrous Turanian horde surged into the lands of Iran, setting palaces ablaze, uprooting orchards, and laying waste to the sacred realm.