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Chapter 1073: Chapter 437: Prosperity, Rendezvous_3 Chapter 1073: Chapter 437: Prosperity, Rendezvous_3 So, if the four hundred thousand Liang troops really wanted to retreat, they could.

However, the cost of retreating would be difficult to predict.

After all, Qingxuanzi, with hundreds of thousands of Chu troops, was following behind.

If you choose to defend a city or line up for battle with the Chu army, then perhaps you wouldn’t be at a disadvantage.

But if you forsake these advantages and opt to flee in panic, the Chu army certainly won’t miss the opportunity to kick someone when they’re down.

Pursuing and annihilating the four hundred thousand Liang troops along the way would be nothing extraordinary.

Hadn’t Yan Yunqing suffered a heavy loss previously when he tried to retreat in secret?

Thousands of men were lost on the retreat, offering countless merits to the Chu army for nothing.

Therefore, a direct retreat is unlikely.

According to Qingxuanzi’s analysis, it’s more likely that Yan Yunqing intended to leave some troops behind to cover the rear.

They would secure the retreat path first, and after the main forces had withdrawn, the rearguard would then escape.

Following this method, the Liang army could still manage to retreat with around two hundred thousand men.

Although this is only half of the peak strength of five hundred thousand men,

such a loss in a major defeat is already quite good.

Source: .com, updated on ƝονǤᴑ.ᴄօ

What more could one hope for?

Lu Yuan was also quite satisfied with this outcome.

Having captured half of the Liang army in Shanyang County was quite an achievement.

After all, his main focus was not on Shanyang County.

This protruding part of the Liang territory was bound to be abandoned, and the Chu army was simply waiting to take it over.

There was no need to waste too much manpower on it.

Compared to this, Lu Yuan would rather see the eastern expeditionary army focus on the eastern counties of Yingling and Jiaodong.

In mid-August, the Liang messenger, who had hurried back after reaching an agreement with the Chu State, finally returned to Zhuxu City in Zheng Kingdom.

Then, he submitted the results of the peace talks between the two countries to the emperor of Zheng.

Despite feeling extremely aggrieved by Lu Yuan’s harsh demands, given the dire situation facing Zheng, the Zheng emperor accepted the terms.

ονǤօ.сᴑ

So after fulfilling the treaty and completing the handover of Haiyang Prefecture to the Chu State, and seeing the Chu army actually withdrawing and ceasing hostilities, on the seventeenth of August in the forty-second year of the Shenwu era, Emperor Zheng Lian officially passed the throne to the Crown Prince, announcing his abdication.

The new Crown Prince, upon assuming the throne, immediately dispatched a messenger to send his eldest legitimate son to the Chu State as a hostage.

After Zheng complied with all the conditions set by Chu, the original Yuzhou Expeditionary Camp began restructuring.

Leaving nine hundred thousand troops to garrison the four prefectures of Yuzhou, Huang Xuan reorganized the Yangxia Expeditionary Army, leading the remaining six hundred thousand troops towards Jiaodong County.

Yet, there were also seven hundred thousand Liang troops stationed in Jiaodong County.

Although Huang Xuan’s troops were somewhat more elite, and they had more Inborn Grandmasters, the Liang forces held a defensive advantage that was sufficient to offset these differences.

So, with the gap being small, the numerically superior Liang army naturally gained the advantage on the Jiaodong battlefield.

Although Huang Xuan’s Yangxia Camp made some headway there, it only managed to capture several prefectures and counties, far from making a true breakthrough, let alone penetrating deeper into the county.

It stands to reason.

Expecting to conquer an entire county with six hundred thousand men, especially when the county was backed by the continuous support of the Liang people, really was a pipe dream.

So, after getting the details, Lu Yuan ordered that the captured soldiers and defectors from Zheng, totaling over seven hundred thousand, be transferred to Jiaodong County.

With this cannon fodder reinforcement, they could, at least, help Huang Xuan achieve some battle results.

At the very least, securing the southern coastal region of Jiaodong County and achieving a breakthrough to the east shouldn’t pose much of a problem.

As long as this was accomplished, the mission of the Yangxia Camp would be deemed complete.

With no issues left for Huang Xuan, what remained was for the Qing Xuan-led eastern expeditionary army.

During this time, the eastern expeditionary army had also achieved quite a few battle results.

Last month they captured Rencheng Prefecture entirely, and now they were about to seize Shanyang County—an enormous gain indeed.

However, compared to these victories, the true goal of this route was to break through to the east, connecting Yingling and Jiaodong counties, and join forces with the eastern Yangxia Camp, ensuring that the two routes met.

This was originally the objective of last year’s first Northern Expedition, but for various reasons, it was not fulfilled.

The second Northern Expedition this year saw tremendous progress; not only did significant victories occur in the direction of Yuzhou, but Liang was also greatly weakened in Qingzhou.

Especially after the great victory in Daliang, Liang had never recovered, losing its last active force.

Now was the perfect time to seize the opportunity, capture Yingling, and meet with Huang Xuan in Jiaodong County.

Therefore, after the end of the battle in Daliang, besides ordering Qingyu Zi to lead troops north to Dongping County, Lu Yuan left a force to defend Liang County and then allocated five hundred thousand troops to the eastern expeditionary army to take over the security of the areas under their control.

The main forces of the eastern expeditionary army were then gathered together, amounting to eight hundred thousand men, who advanced eastward from Rencheng Prefecture into Yingling County.

The Liang army defending Yingling County numbered only five hundred thousand, with just three Inborn Grandmasters among them.

After years of continual warfare, Liang, which once had over seventy Inborn Grandmasters, had its foundation eroded away by constant battles.

By the time of this year’s second Northern Expedition, only forty-some Inborn remained in Liang.

These Inborn Grandmasters were then concentrated in the three battle zones of Liang County, Shanyang County, and Jiaodong County.

But now, these zones were either annihilated or under attack by the Chu army, leaving them unable to fend for themselves.

Under such circumstances, other areas left with a garrison of Inborn Grandmasters were naturally very few.

Yingling County was one such case.

Thus, facing the onslaught of the eastern expeditionary army, although the county’s defending troops were ample, they found themselves in a severe disadvantage regarding high-level combat strength.

After just a few battles, the Liang army was thoroughly defeated, and the defenses to the east were breached.

The Chu army was able to advance rapidly, penetrating into the heartland of Yingling County.

In contrast, the local Liang defenders had no choice but to retreat northwards continually after successive defeats, voluntarily vacating the southern defensive lines as well as the prefectures and counties within.

In just over ten days, the eastern expeditionary army had achieved its objective, breaking through all the way east to Jiaodong County.

At this time, with the cannon fodder piling up, Huang Xuan had also managed to clear a path to the west.

The two expeditionary armies successfully met at the border between the two counties.