TO ACHIEVE IMMORTALITY, I CULTIVATE USING QI LUCK

Chapter 1055: Chapter 431: Xu State Enters the Arena_3 Chapter 1055: Chapter 431: Xu State Enters the Arena_3 “`

The purpose of this was to persuade the high-level officials of Liang to discuss the matter of ceding, or rather, selling their territory.

As long as Liang was willing to relinquish a prefecture, Yue was ready to pay a hefty price to buy it.

This activity had been going on for over half a year and had already achieved notable success.

Now,

seeing that the grand capital of Liang was about to fall, the envoys of Yue within the city proactively proposed.

Liang would cede a prefecture in exchange for military aid from Yue.

Under the crisis of national collapse and life-and-death, this proposal had already been approved by the monarch and ministers of Liang.

If Yue could dispatch a million troops to rescue the grand capital, helping Liang to hold it, or in the event of its loss, assist in rebuilding a new second line of defense, the defense line of Shanyang County behind Liang,

then Liang would be willing to cede Qingping County, granting this prefecture to Yue as its third county territory in Qingzhou.

Well, Qingping County is located in the northeast of Qingzhou, at the border junction of Xu, Qing, Yu, and Jing states, a true frontier region.

Its population is also sparse, about seventeen or eighteen million.

And to the north and east of this prefecture lies the territory of Tang, which borders Liang and shares a frontier with this enemy state.

For the safety of this prefecture, Liang has stationed an army of three hundred thousand here, plus an additional five hundred thousand from the Yue army, to maintain a defense.

Source: AllNovelFull.com, updated on Ɲονɡօ.сο

From the above complex makeup, it is not hard to see that the situation in Qingping County is very dire, not only facing the foreign enemy of Tang but also suffering from the infiltration of Yue.

It can even be said that many prefectures and counties within Qingping are essentially under the control of Yue.

Liang’s hold on this area is not tight, and its rule is quite weak, not at all stable.

Were it not for this land serving as a barrier against Liang’s invasion into Qingzhou, an important stronghold shielding their own rear hinterland, Liang would have wanted to rid themselves of it long ago.

They certainly wouldn’t have deployed their precious forces to garrison here.

Now, since Yue has the need to expand its territories, and Liang itself has the need to seek external reinforcements, a mutually beneficial agreement naturally came together on both sides.

Swapping a border prefecture that has already lost half control and has been preliminarily penetrated by Yue for a million support troops from Yue seems like a very worthwhile deal.

This way, the hole in the north can be filled by Yue.

The current Liang, facing Chu State alone, is nearly exhausted of its life itself.

It really doesn’t have more energy to deal with another mad dog-like Tang.

Tossing the chicken rib of Qingping County to Yue, and then let them resist Tang on Liang’s behalf, to shield Liang’s northeast border and fight to the death against that mad dog,

Liang itself could then withdraw Qingping County’s three hundred thousand border troops and deploy them to the more critical western frontline.

The current Liang, after a series of losses, is in dire need of soldiers.

Whether the grand capital can be held or not, it cannot change the fact that due to this war, Liang has lost millions of troops.

Whether this battle is won or lost has little significance now.

Win or lose, how to reconstruct the western defense line post-war is the primary task of Liang.

If this can’t be done, even if the grand capital is preserved, it won’t serve much purpose.

Because if there are no forces to defend it, even if the grand capital’s walls still fly Liang’s banner, can this city still be considered part of Liang?

It would be nothing more than at the Chu people’s mercy.

Moreover, if the defense line is not promptly repaired, let alone the grand capital, whether or not the counties behind it in Liang can be preserved is also questionable.

Having lost a vast expanse of land, Liang, now relegated to a common hegemon, has lost the foundational strength of being the top state in the world, and its shortcomings are revealed at this time.

An average hegemon, even if it monopolizes a state, has only a population of twenty or thirty million.

With such a foundation, even at the brink of extinction, they can muster up just four or five million troops.

Now, Liang has dispatched a million on the eastern line, over a million on the southern line, and another million-plus on the western line, just barely managing four million soldiers.

But now, in Chu’s second Northern Expedition, the western front, the one hundred and twenty thousand troops in the grand capital defense area were wiped out in one fell swoop.

Over one-fourth of Liang’s military force just vanished like that.

Given its national power and population, without these forces, they cannot recover unless a decade passes and domestic children grow up.

But where can they find another ten years?

Therefore, this blow is a tangible and utterly irrecoverable loss.

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Liang’s war potential has been directly drained by a quarter.

Its defense line also has a fatal hole that urgently needs to be filled by new forces.

The three hundred thousand troops of Dongping County become crucial at this time.

But these three hundred thousand can only solve the immediate issue; to rely on this number of troops to build a new western defense line is entirely impossible.

It would take about a million men, barely enough.

However, considering Liang’s current situation, where can it find another million men to spare?

They couldn’t possibly do what was mentioned above and conscript old people, children under fifteen, and those over seventy, could they?

Given the nature of those royal nobles, they might not have much psychological burden to do such a bottom-of-the-barrel move.

But being able to do so doesn’t mean it would be effective.

An army composed of such a ragtag army, if truly brought to the battlefield, might not only fail to stabilize the front line, but might also make the defense line even weaker and more chaotic, collapsing at the slightest hit.

Therefore, unable to achieve this internally, they could only seek assistance externally.

The million-strong Yue army rescuing the grand capital is just one aspect.

Utilizing the opponent’s troops to construct a new western defense line is the true core interest.

And after these two countries reached an exchange of interest, Lu Yuan’s strategy to capture the grand capital suddenly faced new complications.

By mid-July, unfavorable news came from the northeast of Liang County, which had initially been occupied by Chu’s forces.

A large number of Xu troops entered the territory and, with the cooperation of the local Liang people, drove out the Chu army from the area, regaining control.

Outside the grand capital, Yue’s banners appeared.

The grand capital, long besieged by Chu forces, re-established contact with the outside world.

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