To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

Chapter 1075: Chapter 438: Talented, End of the War_2 Chapter 1075: Chapter 438: Talented, End of the War_2 “`

This is still only over half of Qingzhou.

If he were to unify the entire Central State, it is projected that the Qi Luck could double on the existing basis.

Even when the world becomes unified and a golden age arrives, after a period of rest and recovery, if the population experienced a surge, increasing three to fivefold, it wouldn’t be impossible.

In any case, the current Lu Yuan truly has a promising future; Immortal Method is within reach.

“However, this time, drawing away twenty thousand officials, although there are juren and Scholars to fill the gap, suddenly using up so many officials from the reserve force, the inside of the country is somewhat overwhelmed.”

Setting aside the situation of the officials about to take office, Lu Yuan picked up the report from Baling.

This was sent by Sun Siwen, who was in charge of the rear.

After years of accumulation, especially more than thirty years of prosperity, Chu State’s culture had exploded.

Above the localities, one could say that it was a gathering of scholars and geniuses.

However, no matter how plentiful the talents, the original scale of Chu State was still apparent.

The total population was merely seventy million, and on this basis, no matter how much one cultivated talents, there would always be a limit.

According to statistics, before the Northern Expedition, the number of literate people in Chu State, those who had passed the child student examinations, totaled only around two hundred thousand.

Among them, those with the title of Scholar or higher were only around forty to fifty thousand.

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Now, half of these forty to fifty thousand have been drawn away, many of whom are elites.

Of the remaining half, the quality is mixed, and those who are truly capable might amount to less than ten thousand.

A mere ten thousand people, even if fully utilized, would barely be enough to fill the vacancies in the remaining half of Qingzhou.

The other areas, such as the two-thirds of Yuzhou that Chu State did not control, if conquered later, would then face a shortage of officials.

This Northern Expedition, after all, is akin to a snake swallowing an elephant.

Chu State was almost like taking a breath and annexing a territory three times the size of its own, and one can imagine the burden and pressure involved.

The military aspect is still manageable; with the strength of the Chu army, they could just roll over the opposition.

But once the territory is conquered, it also needs to be governed.

In this regard, it is not something that can be handled by mere fighting and killing.

Without enough talent, even if territories are taken, they would end up in chaos in the end.

Not only would they fail to provide any productive interest, but they would also become a burden, and that would be undesirable.

“Once Central State is taken down, subsequent territories like Yangzhou will also have to be gradually abandoned; from here, over ten thousand officials could be reassigned.

Moreover, after seizing Central State, it would not be possible to eliminate all the old forces; inevitably, some remnants of various countries will need to be incorporated into the Chu State system.

At that time, several thousand official positions can be offered to unite people’s hearts and minds.

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Combining these two aspects, it should be possible to squeeze out another twenty thousand officials, and the final issue with officials should be solvable.”

Lu Yuan calculated his family’s resources carefully and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Not bad.

After decades of accumulation, the family foundation was finally rich enough to withstand such expansion.

“If there is no shortage of talent, it seems that next year’s third Northern Expedition could take bigger steps.”

Thinking thus, he began to write a reply to Sun Siwen.

To make big strides, relying on himself alone would not be sufficient; he also needed the cooperation of his friend in the rear.

…

As Lu Yuan stayed in the larger city of Liang, Chu’s second Northern Expedition gradually entered its final phase.

Time had already progressed into late autumn, and soon, the first heavy snowfall would come, heralding the onset of winter.

Given the current weather, once winter arrived, the chill beyond one’s home would be life-threatening; it would be impossible for people to remain outdoors for extended periods.

Therefore, military campaigns would naturally be unable to continue.

So, every winter, although many people lose their lives, it is also a rare respite during a year of chaos for everyone.

At such a time, it would naturally be impossible for the Chu army to launch any large-scale operations or start new conflicts.

Therefore, after autumn, the military actions of the Chu army were merely a continuation of what had been done previously.

In August, the eastern expeditionary force met up with the Yangxia Expeditionary Army, and after combining forces, quickly stabilized the occupied areas of Yingling and the southern parts of Jiaodong counties.

They used the coastal area of the south as a base and slowly explored northward expansion.

However, after taking over this territory, the two expeditionary forces were already at their limits.

The newly occupied territories required a large number of troops for surveillance, and the spread of forces throughout the prefectures and counties directly took away half the manpower of the two expeditionary armies.

Despite the relatively smooth progress of the breakthroughs from both sides, there were nonetheless losses.

Breaking through two counties could not avoid its toll.

Over four hundred thousand lives were lost along the way to the rendezvous.

The only consolation was that the majority of the dead were prisoners from Zheng Kingdom; the real casualties from Chu people were only around a hundred thousand.

Thus, the main forces of both expeditionary armies remained intact.

However, after fighting continuously for over half a year, even the elite Chu army was both physically and mentally exhausted, and everyone was tired of it.

Therefore, after detecting changes in the regional sentiment, Qing Xuanzi and Huang Xuan, the two leaders, decisively stopped large-scale military operations.

Apart from sending small groups of troops still capable of further action to continue infiltrating north, the bulk of the forces rested in the rear.

They settled down to consolidate local security and rotated for rest.

For this year, the eastern and Yangxia expeditionary armies would essentially remain as such.

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