To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

Chapter 815: Chapter 351: The High-Stakes Gamble_2

“`

But even so, with about twenty thousand soldiers in each prefecture, some without an Inborn Grandmaster to command them, the defense is still too hollow.

So hollow that Ning Country would only need to dispatch one Inborn Grandmaster with fifty to sixty thousand soldiers to possibly break through the defense line of a prefecture and kill their way into the interior of Dongting Prefecture.

And with the strength of Ning Country, drawing out such a detached army is undoubtedly extremely simple and easy.

Meaning, Dongting Prefecture is actually in a state of extreme hollowness and deep danger.

Lu Yuan had distributed forces across four battlefields, among which Xiangyang Prefecture, Nanhai Country, and the two countries of Su-Song, were equipped with full and even luxurious staffing of personnel and soldiers.

In these three battlefields, Chu State had nearly reached an invincible position.

But this invincible land was achieved on the premise of sacrificing the defense of Dongting Prefecture, allowing the main battlefield where Lu Yuan was located to be at a disadvantage in strength.

Therefore, looking at the overall situation, Chu State could be said to be in a great advantage, even holding the winning ticket, everywhere else.

Only in Dongting Prefecture, Chu State was at a disadvantage, even possibly on the verge of a great defeat at any time.

Lu Yuan was deeply aware of this, and it was for the elimination of these risks that he felt a profound anxiety.

He was now walking a tightrope, where a single misstep could send him plummeting into the abyss, shattering into a broken mess and losing everything.

This was very dangerous.

But if he did not do so, Dongting Prefecture might be stable, but the situations in the other three battlefields would become unfavorable or reach a stalemate.

Once in a stalemate, Chu, Ning, and the other Five Kingdoms would enter a mere contest of underlying strength and resource consumption.

This Great War would turn out like the war in the Snowy Wilderness and with Zhou Country, purely a contest of whose population is larger, who has more money, who has more grain, who can endure more death.

Although he believed that he would definitely win this contest, relying on his own strength and underlying strength, Lu Yuan believed…

the victory might come five or six years later, or perhaps after a decade.

And by then, the lands of Yangzhou would have been scarred by war, a complete mess, with its previous prosperity gone.

In such a case, even if he won, as the victor, he would not gain much, it would only be a situation of mutual destruction.

Therefore, to obtain sufficient victory and benefits, the war should not last too long, nor should its scale become too large.

The best outcome would be to decide the victory in a few decisive battles, defeating the enemy in a short time, and then seizing all the spoils of war while the conflict had not yet spread.

To achieve this goal, conventional methods obviously wouldn’t work, and some unconventional means must be used.

Such as…

Abandoning and weakening the strength of the main battlefield in Dongting Prefecture, and in turn strengthening the forces of the other three detached battlefields.

Allowing the other three battlefields to quickly settle the victory for our side.

After defeating the local enemies and consolidating the local resources, turn back to support the main battlefield.

Eventually, all forces will be gathered to strike a final blow to the enemy, who has already weakened after three defeats, and win this Great War.

All of these are Lu Yuan’s true goals.

And in order to achieve this goal, he must hold the weakened Dongting Prefecture, enduring until reinforcements from the other three battlefields arrive, ensuring Dongting Prefecture does not fall.

What this contest boils down to is whether his own detached army defeats the enemy’s detached army first, or whether the enemy’s main force defeats his main force first; it’s all about speed.

In essence, Lu Yuan was engaging in a massive gamble.

But he was willing to take the bet wholeheartedly.

Because this gamble was not just about the ownership of Yangzhou; it was about the right to survive in this apocalyptic world, and about the hope that he could lead the Nine Provinces through this catastrophe in the future.

For this greater goal, taking some risks at this moment and wagering on such a battle is nothing in comparison.

If he wins, it will prove that the Heavenly Mandate favors him, and he is destined to be the master of the post-apocalyptic world.

If he loses, it would be well to give up the ambition of contending for supremacy promptly, peacefully leading his family to find a place to hide for a few hundred years.

When the transcendents of the world have vanished, he could then emerge in the post-apocalyptic world to build a nation and wrestle for power again.

Actually, when carefully considered, that latter path is undoubtedly more comfortable, more relaxed.

But Lu Yuan dares not bet on it.

He dares not bet that after the destruction of the Four Extremes of the Nine Provinces, the remaining Central State would still exist as in ancient times, sustaining the people of this realm.

If it could not, then this world would undoubtedly be on its last legs, entering a state of collapse.

Staying in this world, Lu Yuan would be like waiting for a slow death; his ultimate fate would be to perish along with this world.

This was not an impossibility.

So, despite not knowing whether this conjecture would come true, as long as there was a sliver of possibility, he dared not gamble on it.

Therefore, for the future, it is imperative to unify Yangzhou as soon as possible, to unify the Nine Provinces quickly, and then, by leveraging the Qi Luck of the entire Nine Provinces, extract the last remaining Spiritual Energy from the depths of the Heavenly Vault for his cultivation.

Gathering the resources of an entire world to bolster one’s own cultivation, to push one’s strength to the limit, to be prepared for any dangers that might arise in the future.

This is the driving force that motivates Lu Yuan to continue the struggle for power and to quicken the pace of unification.

“To Changsha, Hengyang, and Luyang, I have already asked Brother Sun to summon two hundred thousand civilian workers from within the country, to be dispatched to these three places for defense. With this, including the original soldiers, each prefecture should have about eighty or ninety thousand people stationed.”

“`