TO ACHIEVE IMMORTALITY, I CULTIVATE USING QI LUCK

Chapter 1136: Chapter 458 Qingzhou Unified_3 Chapter 1136: Chapter 458 Qingzhou Unified_3 “`

These people’s settlement will consume a vast amount of money and food, making it yet another continuously bleeding project.

Therefore, at least within the next five years, Xu State will lack the strength and ability to interfere externally.

As for the threat of Xu State to the north, Chu State can temporarily set it aside and handle it after they sweep through the enemies in Yuzhou.

However, as a precaution, after the Northern Expedition against Xu had ended, Lu Yuan still left a six-hundred-thousand-strong force in the three Qingzhou prefectures originally held by Xu State, established a Xu State Camp there, and appointed Qingyangzi as the Camp Commander, with nine Inborns as his subordinates.

From the name of this camp, it is clear that the enemy this force is designated to counter is the Xu State to the north.

With six hundred thousand troops and ten Inborns, by relying on the great river’s natural defenses and the series of heavy fortified lines left by Liang State and Xu State, even if Xu State attacks with full force, the Xu State Camp could adequately defend.

Moreover, in addition to this, after recapturing Dongping, Le’an, and Qingping prefectures and stabilizing them, Lu Yuan also began to dispatch officials to these three prefectures gradually, to establish official administrations at various levels, along with the county soldiers and militia system.

Once the establishment of the third-tier local troops and local militia is complete, each military area can have at least thirty thousand soldiers and an Inborn to hold the fort.

All these people combined constitute another hundred thousand soldiers and three Inborns.

Qingyangzi, overseeing the Xu State Camp, also has the authority to mobilize these local troops in the event of an enemy invasion, thus further strengthening his power.

With this dual layer of insurance, the threat from Xu State in the north is significantly alleviated.

Therefore, after making these defensive arrangements, Lu Yuan also led his main army back to the Imperial Capital of Great Liang, ending the Northern Expedition before the onset of winter.

The third Northern Expedition of Chu State thus concludes.

Source: AllNovelFull.com, updated on Ɲ0νǤօ.ᴄο

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After returning to the Great Liang, Lu Yuan did not get a chance to rest.

Following the Northern Expedition, Chu State achieved a wealth of gains, and naturally, this brought a barrage of affairs, pressing for his attention as the emperor.

Foremost and most crucial was the handling of the great number of prisoners, as well as the surrendered soldiers from the mixed army captured during the Northern Expedition.

This represented an unprecedented victory for Chu State in its campaign to annihilate Liang and defeat Xu.

In the wake of victory laid one million and seven hundred thousand prisoners and defectors from Liang, as well as around one million and two hundred thousand from the Xu Army.

All put together, nearly three million prisoners and defectors had become the largest source of instability within Qingzhou’s borders.

Like a powder keg, improper handling could lead to explosion.

Chu State too lacked sufficient funds and food to sustain these three million people.

Now, with the eradication of Liang State and the retreat of Xu Army, the only enemy remaining for Chu State within the borders of the Nine Provinces was the Four Kingdoms in Yuzhou.

Though this enemy was powerful, compared to those Chu faced in the previous three Northern Expeditions, they were not much of a concern.

After all, the combined population of these four kingdoms barely exceeded sixty or seventy million, and under extreme conscription, they could at most mobilize ten million soldiers—but not for long.

Under normal conditions, even during war, the military strength of the four kingdoms would remain at about four to five million.

As for Inborn Grandmasters, the four kingdoms together would have around sixty people.

Dealing with this enemy, though somewhat troublesome, wasn’t overly difficult.

In the war next year, Lu Yuan didn’t plan to invest too many troops or resources in the Yuzhou battlefield.

Five million soldiers and a hundred Inborns would be the total military force for the fourth Northern Expedition.

This was also the maximum number of troops the country’s supply chain could support after three years of war.

Yes, for this Northern Expedition, Chu State planned to take the elite route, intending to overcome the enemy with quality.

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With the meticulously selected elite five million from Chu State, bolstered by the numerous avatars of the powerful Inborn masters, even if they were only facing an opponent of equal military size from the Yuzhou Four Kingdoms, it was believed they could achieve an overwhelming advantage.

Anyway, Lu Yuan didn’t believe that the mixed army cobbled together by the opponent four kingdoms could withstand the elites he had gathered by leveraging the strength of the whole world.

And if he planned to take the quality route, those previously used cannon fodder tactics would naturally be obsolete.

Just as well.

Now that Liang had been destroyed, and Xu State had been driven back to its original territory in Xuzhou, there were no more adversaries in Qingzhou territory.

In this region, Chu State could also peacefully develop and recover the prefectures and counties ravaged by war.

Especially the former territory of Liang, as Liang had perished, the native people of Liang within its borders had now become Chu people, citizens under Lu Yuan’s rule.

In such a case, using the people of Liang as cannon fodder like before when Liang still existed seemed somewhat inappropriate.

Now there were no more people of Liang, only Chu people.

If Lu Yuan were to use the former Liang people, now Chu people, as cannon fodder, he would be depleting his own strength.

Moreover, completely depleting these captive Liang people would equate to directly destroying the last batch of quality population in Chu State’s territory in Qingzhou.

This would be a devastating blow to the recovery of local production.

It would not be conducive to the future recovery and governance of Qingzhou.

Similarly, the same applied to the Xu State captives over there.

Xu State had already been driven back to Xuzhou, and the thirty million people within the three prefectures of its Qingzhou territory had become subjects of Chu State.

And the large number of Xu Army captives captured by Chu State were essentially from these three prefectures of Qingzhou.

Exhausting these people meant the death of fathers, sons, and brothers of the Chu citizens and a depletion of Chu State’s strength.

When Liang, Wei, Zhao, Xu, and other countries still existed, and to achieve victory in war, Lu Yuan was willing to sacrifice the future potential of the territories, piling up victories with the lives of captives.

But now that the other countries had been annihilated and the Great War was won, such a low-benefit, low-return model was naturally undesirable.

Therefore, after consideration,

Lu Yuan released all of the three million captives captured during this Northern Expedition, along with the remaining captives from previous expeditions, totaling five million people.

He allowed them to return to their hometowns and engage in production and construction, the value of which far exceeded that of five million purely consumptive captives.

Let those who are professional handle the war.

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Having maintained such a large force, Chu State certainly wouldn’t let the money and grains go to waste, now was the perfect time to make use of them.

As for those conscripted civilians, even if they were nominally army troops, their effectiveness on the battlefield paled in comparison to that of a real army.

Production and cultivation in the localities, that was their real duty.

Having unified Qingzhou and taken possession of two thirds of Central State, Lu Yuan’s mode of thinking had now shifted towards being the true ruler of the Nine Provinces.

All under the heavens, is royal land.

Everywhere within its bounds, are royal ministers.

The civilians of the enemy nations are also my civilians.

Even if they do not belong to me at this moment, once the enemy country is eliminated, they naturally will.

This is indeed the heart of a Heavenly Son and the magnanimity of a king.

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