To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

Chapter 1144: Chapter 461: The Fourth Northern Expedition_2 Chapter 1144: Chapter 461: The Fourth Northern Expedition_2 “Based on the limit that one city can only cover two prefectures at most,

If I want to completely defend a county, one defense line would require at least five cities to be garrisoned.

Only then can we ensure it won’t be infiltrated by the Barbarians.

But in reality, all I actually need to do is ensure that among the four defense lines, the area close to the hinterland is secured, preventing the Barbarians from crossing that region and infiltrating the rear.

Among the four defense lines, those areas that are not adjacent to the rear can actually be somewhat abandoned.

Just like Xu State previously, in order to block my forces, only stationed troops in Dongping County’s central and southern cities, Xichang and Shouzhang, which covered only half the county’s area, was enough to stop my central military expedition from advancing further east.

With this line of thinking, for the four defense lines on home soil, each county only actually needs two to three strongholds, which is enough to control and cover the entire defensive region and ensure the safety of the homeland.”

Lu Yuan, smoothing out his thoughts, slowly looked over the homeland map, and eventually marked red dots in three regions of Xichuan County close to Hanzhong County, close to Dongting County, and close to the Yangtze River waterway.

For Qianzhong County, three red dots were marked on the two major cities on the east side close to Dongting County, as well as the county city.

In South Sea Prefecture, three red dots were marked in the regions close to Dongting and Yuzhang prefectures, as well as the prefecture city of Nanhai City.

Jian’an County was the same, marking three red dots in regions close to Yuzhang and Linhai prefectures and the county city.

So, for the entire defense line of the four prefectures, each prefecture has three cities to defend, making a total of twelve strongholds, which is enough to cover half the area of a county.

“Now we only need to defend twelve cities.

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With the military force we have at home, once we pull back the troops from the front line,

We can ensure that each city has a garrison of one hundred thousand troops, and we can deploy an Inborn Grandmaster in each city.”

Lu Yuan wrote down the troop deployment on the map, then looked at his plans, nodding with satisfaction, “This way, with only one million and two hundred thousand troops and twelve Inborns, we can meet the basic defense needs of the four defensive regions.

The remaining several hundred thousand troops can be deployed along the maritime defense lines of Guangling and Linhai prefectures to intercept pirates coming ashore, safeguarding our maritime borders.

Or they can be reserved in the capital Baling for emergencies.

However, to be on the safe side, the Inborn Grandmasters in these defense regions can be further strengthened.

At home, there are already thirty-four Inborns.

On my side, excluding the one hundred needed for next year’s Northern Expedition, I happen to have six extra, which can just support the homeland.

So the number of Inborns at home can reach a total of forty.

Of these forty, ten can be deployed to Linhai and Guangling prefectures to deal with the pirates landing ashore.

Six can be stationed in the capital Baling as a mobile force, ready to assist all places at any time.

The remaining twenty-four can be evenly distributed to each city in the four defensive regions, ensuring that each has two Inborn Grandmasters.

With one hundred thousand troops in a city, two Inborn Grandmasters, and about four hundred thousand settling civilians surrounding the city, who can also provide between fifty and eighty thousand Civil Group Volunteers,

This power, as long as each defense line is somewhat secure, each stronghold within the county supports each other, and the rear is ready to assist at any time, is enough to guarantee the safety of the homeland.”

After a thorough adjustment, Lu Yuan had no more doubts about his plans in the homeland, and he completely let go of his concerns.

The current adjustments actually only meet the current needs.

He was well aware that with the changing situation, that is, those Barbarian pirates gradually taking over the territory Chu State withdrew from,

The threat they could pose once they were established on these lands would far exceed what it was now.

At this moment, these Barbarians in the south, limited by logistical constraints, can only deploy five or six million troops in the southwest region of Lingnan.

But if they were to take root there, then forty to fifty million Barbarian pirates coming ashore, with ample food and supplies, the troops they could mobilize later would be more than ten million.

Of course, these are just theoretical numbers.

In actuality, to mobilize an army of ten million, without a decade’s worth of accumulation, is unthinkable.

The most likely scenario for those Barbarians is to continue with four to five million troops and engage in warfare with Chu.

This is the normal scale of sustained warfare that they, given their capacity, can support.

Right now, those Barbarians, who can mobilize four to five million people, are in a desperate phase, which is unsustainable.

But if they were to occupy the southwest and Lingnan regions abandoned by Chu State, which spanned eight prefectures, with the original foundation of Chu infrastructure, they could support thirty million people.

If they lived a little tighter, supporting forty to fifty million people wouldn’t be too difficult.

And as long as they can sustain the entire Barbarian population, with a few years of additional cultivation and accumulation, they could then rely on these underlying strengths to engage in long-term warfare with Chu, deploying four to five million troops.

Chu State’s current withdrawal from the southwest and Lingnan indeed provides significant relief for border pressures.

But this is trading space for time, using the cession of territories to temporarily satisfy the Barbarians and achieve a momentary stability.

In the long run, it is undoubtedly fraught with endless troubles.”

“However, if we put aside Yangzhou for the moment and look to the long term, that is, the entire Nine Provinces of the world,

Giving up the impoverished southwest and Lingnan to gain three to five years of stability, allowing time to smoothly manage the whole of Central State,

This is undoubtedly a very profitable deal.”

Lu Yuan had his own calculation in mind, “As long as the four Northern Expeditions succeed and we conquer Yuzhang, not only will Great Chu gain the land of ten prefectures, but our population will also increase by thirty to forty million.”