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Chapter 1063: Chapter 434 Warfare and Pros and Cons_2 Chapter 1063: Chapter 434 Warfare and Pros and Cons_2 This is all good news.

‘Next, temporarily ending the conflict in Yuzhou can also ease the severe logistical pressure over there, allowing the expeditionary forces to rest and reorganize.’

Yuzhou is, after all, still too far from the heartland of Chu State.

Although there is the convenience of maritime transport, capable of carrying grain in large ships, a round trip on the vast ocean still takes time.

And with the military supplies for nearly two million soldiers, Chu State does not have enough ships to transport everything.

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Many supplies must be gathered on the spot by the Yuzhou Expeditionary Camp.

Since it is a collection, there must be a source.

Where does it come from?

Naturally, it’s from the local populace.

For every additional portion the Chu army takes, the local populace has one less portion to eat.

And with nearly two million Chu troops, even if only a part of them takes from the locals, it would still be a deadly blow to the local social ecosystem.

In fact, after the heavy taxation by the former Zheng Kingdom and the subsequent requisition by Chu State, a massive famine has already erupted among the Zheng populace within the Chu-controlled regions.

Now, a rough estimate is that at least over a hundred thousand people have starved to death.

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Moreover, a large number of people, due to hunger, have chosen to rebel and rise up.

However, rebelling in this kind of environment essentially has no chance of success.

It is no longer the time when Yue Country still existed, and Lu Yuan was just starting out.

At that time, despite disputes between states, the overall intensity of war was not severe, and the scale was maintained at the level of tens of thousands, or at most a few hundred thousand people.

Even in national wars, there were only several hundred thousand involved, usually not exceeding one million.

But after nearly fifty years of refining, the states have perfected their military mobilization systems and established complete armies.

The power of the national iron fist is overwhelmingly strong.

On the local level, rebellions of a few hundred or a few thousand people are insignificant to the regular armies that number tens or hundreds of thousands.

They are truly like ants in comparison.

A mere motion, and they can be crushed to death.

A rebellion that has just erupted and grows to a few thousand in number can quickly be extinguished by the responding regular army.

They will not be given a chance to grow.

Not to mention, with many able-bodied men conscripted into the military, the remaining weak and elderly, women and children in the local areas, even if they wanted to rebel, would lack the capacity and energy to do so.

Unable to cause trouble or resist, for ordinary people, the eventual outcome can only be to endure and wait for death.

So, though there are rebellions, they’re not significant enough to change the climate.

More of the populace can only watch helplessly as Zheng troops and Chu troops take away their food and seize their property, and aside from wailing, they cannot do anything else.

Oh, that’s not entirely true.

They cannot fight against the strong, but they can bully the weaker ones.

Locally, many families with fewer people, without a male presence, are bullied by neighbors in the village or the community.

These widows and orphans, after facing plunder by the official army, also endure the seizing from those around them.

Not just food and grain, but money, land, and so forth, even their own selves, are seen as reserves of food to others.

Tragedies born of human desperation have already erupted on the land of Yuzhou.

To survive, even the commonly submissive masses are compelled to do things that send shivers down the spine.

Lu Yuan has already received reports from local avatars and understands the dreadful extent of the situation.

But at that time, the main focus of Chu State was still on attacking Zheng Kingdom and occupying more territory in Yuzhou.

Therefore, there was no effort to spare for the living conditions in the occupied areas.

As long as the locale could guarantee the supply of materials for Chu State, keeping the war machine running, that was sufficient.

As for how those supplies were obtained, and what kind of desperate situation the local populace would face after losing their materials, it was not considered.

He is the emperor of Chu State, the emperor of the Chu army, concerned with the interests of Chu people.

Although the Chu army controls the Zheng territories in Yuzhou, the Zheng people there have not yet been assimilated as Chu people.

If these territories cannot be kept, Zheng people will remain Zheng people, still enemies of Chu State.

For enemies, of course, there is no compassion.

Thus, while Lu Yuan feels a bit of reluctance regarding the tragedies in Yuzhou, his heart, hardened through years of training, still chooses to turn a blind eye.

Let people die then.

If more die, more space will be emptied, useful for settling the relocated Chu people.

This actually benefits the future stability of the region.

However, due to this, the population of Zheng people in the three counties of Yuzhou controlled by Chu State, originally numbering six to seven million, has decreased by five to six hundred thousand after several months of famine.

The remaining population continues to diminish amidst the famine.

And with the exhaustive exploitation and loss of population, the materials that Chu State can requisition locally are dwindling.

Although they can still maintain a large army for now, they are nearly reaching their limit.

An expedition across a province is truly no easy feat.

Therefore, even if Zheng messengers had not come, Lu Yuan was already considering temporarily halting the military operations in Yuzhou.

This war chariot has been charging for two years, conquering nearly four counties.

No matter how sturdy and powerful, it is inevitably exhausted.

The Yuzhou Camp, with a total strength of one million seven hundred fifty thousand, has been reduced to below one million five hundred thousand after a series of wars.

They must use these one million five hundred thousand to guard against Liang’s army from Qingzhou to the west and station a large military force in the rear to suppress and control the Zheng populace within the domain.