TO ACHIEVE IMMORTALITY, I CULTIVATE USING QI LUCK

Chapter 905: Chapter 381 Northwestern Warfare_3 Chapter 905: Chapter 381 Northwestern Warfare_3 Facing such severe geopolitical challenges, the sense of crisis in Zhou Country was overwhelming.

So, after giving up Longxi Prefecture and evacuating the populace back to the country,

faced with immense pressure from all sides and consecutive losses of troops and generals, Zhou Country had no choice but to order the recruitment of another five hundred thousand soldiers, expanding its military force back to a million to meet the increasing demands of warfare.

With Zhou Country’s remaining population of thirteen million, recruiting five hundred thousand troops and sustaining an army of a million was difficult, but not impossible.

While troops could be recruited, finding a general was harder.

Previously on the battlefield in Longxi, a Pillar State Grand General of Zhou Country was caught off guard by the Barbarians and directly surrounded by six Inborns.

Without a chance to escape, he perished on the spot.

And in the successive battles with Wei Country, Zhou had also lost two Inborn Pillar States.

Thus, to this day, the number of Pillar State Grand Generals in Zhou Country had fallen directly from the original ten to just seven, with the strongest warriors greatly diminished, not even comparable to Ning Country which barely held on in the two prefectures of Jiangdong.

Therefore, even though Zhou Country only retained two Pillar States in the regions of Henan and Nanyang to guard against Zhao, Liang, Chu, and other countries,

the number of Inborn Pillar States it could gather within Guannei was only five.

This figure was far less than the thirteen claimed by Wei Country and the eight claimed by the Barbarians.

Zhou Country, which once dominated an era, had indeed reached the twilight of its existence, nearing national extinction.

However, even though it was said to be close to extinction, with its current foundations, Zhou Country could still hold out for some time.

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After all, Wei Country to the north also had a large number of barbarian tribes moving south, harassing Wei’s northern territory like the Barbarians and tying up much of Wei’s energy.

The forces Wei could spare to attack Zhou were, at most, like last winter, only four to five hundred thousand troops and three to five Inborns.

The rest of their strength had to be used to deal with those barbarian tribes to ensure domestic stability.

The situation for the Barbarians was not much better.

The weather has grown colder in these two years, not only unbearable for the Barbarians but also for the Western Liang Country, which resides in the same region.

So, last autumn, when the Barbarians launched a major attack on Zhou’s Longxi Prefecture, the Western Liang Country, which had been in closed-door cultivation for years in the western part of Yong State, could no longer endure and sent out four hundred thousand troops to attack the Barbarians in Hexi Prefecture.

The Barbarians were caught off guard, losing half of Hexi Prefecture in an instant, with countless tribes that had migrated there being plundered and enslaved by the Western Liang forces.

It was precisely because of the threat to their rear that even though the situation was good in Longxi at that time, when He Basheng led only fifty thousand troops for reinforcement, the Barbarians still decisively abandoned further attacks.

The reason behind this was the invasion by Western Liang Country.

At this moment, the Barbarians were already heavily backing up their troops, engaging in continuous fierce battles with Western Liang within Hexi territory.

After years of accumulation and development, Western Liang’s strength had become formidable.

With three prefectures, a population of over four million, and situated in a region mixed with barbarian tribes, all dwelling there had come to practice martial arts to defend themselves, with a fierce and intrepid martial spirit.

According to the reports of imperial spies, every household in the country owned fine horses, men were knights, and even women could bend the bow and shoot arrows, in no way inferior to the nomadic tribes of the grasslands.

Under such a martial spirit, the country maintained a standing army of three hundred thousand, with an additional ability to conscript fifty thousand mounted militiamen, making its military strength exceptionally formidable.

Even in terms of Inborn Grandmasters, due to having the remnants of the Tian Shan mountains and numerous Blessed Lands and Cavern Heavens within its borders, Western Liang boasted as many as five, surpassing the average major nation.

Facing such an invasion from a country steeped in martial tradition, the Barbarians naturally found themselves in a painful dilemma, hardly able to cope.

Moreover, exhausted from prolonged warfare, they were no match for Western Liang upon their immediate return from the front lines.

After four major battles, with losses of more than two hundred thousand soldiers, they still could not drive Western Liang away.

Instead, of the remaining half of Hexi Prefecture, they lost another two or three prefectures, leaving themselves with only lands of one or two prefectures.

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The Barbarians had struggled against Zhou for several years, suffering millions of casualties, and the hard-earned results of those battles were now stolen by Western Liang.

How could they endure this?

Yet faced with Western Liang on the battlefield, the Barbarians were not their match.

Driven to desperation, they naturally thought of their kin, Chu State, which had just won a great victory over Ning Country in Jiangdong and had become the sole dominant force in Yangzhou.

So, this winter, the Barbarians, pushed to the brink by Western Liang, sent messengers to Chu State to discuss seeking aid.

At the same time, they also came to negotiate a deal.

During their recent foray into the two prefectures of Henan and Longxi, the Zhou people captured almost seven hundred thousand Zhou civilians.

According to the previous treaty between Chu and the Snow Plains Barbarians, the Barbarians could exchange captives for arms, armor, grain, and supplies from Chu.

Now, after continuous crushing defeats and severe damage to various arms, as well as due to the disruption of production in their tribes, the Barbarians once again faced a grain crisis.

Therefore, they urgently needed to trade with Chu for enough weapons and armor to equip their warriors for the struggle against Western Liang.

They also needed a vast amount of food and fodder to feed the hungry tribes.

Thus, those seven hundred thousand Zhou civilians were used as bargaining chips in trade with Chu.

Regarding this, Lu Yuan had already sent a message to Sun Siwen, asking him to negotiate directly with Zhou.

Although Chu State had recently acquired a vast amount of territory from Jiangdong and Lingnan, increasing the population by more than ten million,

even so, many prefectures within the country were still sparsely populated and in urgent need of immigrants to fill the gaps.

The Barbarians’ willingness to bring in these seven hundred thousand Zhou people was precisely what Lu Yuan desired.

Thus, he agreed to this trade.

However, as sensible as the business was to engage in, when it came to the Barbarians’ request to have Chu send troops to help them defeat Western Liang, Lu Yuan hesitated.

After all, Western Liang was far from Chu and had no conflicts with it.

Western Liang was also poor, with nothing much to offer in terms of money and with a limited population; the benefits that could be gained from attacking it were truly meager.

Instead, it was a fierce opponent with strong military and brave generals, a stout adversary not unlike Chu in the past, and not one to be provoked lightly.

So, there were naturally considerable debates within Chu regarding this request for aid.

The spiritual woman before him was likely here for this reason, wishing to persuade Lu Yuan to aid her maternal tribe.

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